Clean chit to Narendra Modi: Verdict on Zakia Jafri's plea likely today.
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- Category: Gujarat Political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:52
2002 Gujarat riots: Court to decide on Zakia Jafri's petition against clean chit to Narendra Modi likely today
Ahmedabad: BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's march to Delhi faces a big test on Thursday when a court in Ahmedabad will pronounce its order on Zakia Jafri's petition against the closure report of Special Investigation Team (SIT) which gave a clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister in connection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots case.
Zakia Jafri is the wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was among 69 people killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.
In her petition, Jafri contends that Gulbarg massacre was cold-blooded conspiracy by Modi and others to facilitate state-wide communal violence. She claims her husband made frantic calls to the police and even to Narendra Modi, who refused to send help.According to 'zeenews'
It was on September 12, 2011 that the Supreme Court had said it would no longer monitor the case after the SIT cleared Modi of the accusation that he had failed to discharge his constitutional duty to intervene swiftly to stop communal riots. The case was sent back to the lower court.
Modi had immediately tweeted, "God is great," and announced the three-day Sadbhavana fast to embrace Muslims. The fast, started on his 61st birthday on September 17, 2011 had launched his campaign to become BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
The SIT claimed that it could not find any prosecutable evidence against the accused persons regarding their involvement in the alleged conspiracy behind the riots. It had even refused to treat IPS officers like RB Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt as witnesses on the ground that their statements are hearsay evidence.
On the other hand, Zakia has alleged that the SIT has been shielding Modi and others by not believing statements given by these police officers and neglecting the available evidence. Zakia has accused the SIT of playing the role of a court by adjudging the truth of the available evidence. Her lawyers contended that the investigation was incomplete and the probe agency had not even done it seriously.
On the opinion of amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran that Modi may be prosecuted for inciting communal hatred, the SIT has said that there is no evidence to prosecute him, and the incident alleged was beyond the ambit of its probe.
In 2006, Zakia had filed a complaint about the role allegedly played by Modi and 62 others during the 2002 riots. When Gujarat police did not register her complaint, she moved the Gujarat high court which asked her to approach a magisterial court. She chose to move the apex court.
The SC asked the SIT to look into the issue. When the probe team came up with a report, the SC asked it to tender it before the concerned magisterial court. Accordingly, it filed a closure report against all the accused persons on February 8 last year.Sources 'timesofindia'