Ahmedabad:
The Gujarat high court on Tuesday began hearing on a petition filed by 2002 riot victim Zakia Jafri. The peptition challenged the order of a lower court that upheld the clean chit given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 Gujarat riot case by a Special Investigation Team.
Mrs Jafri's husband, former lawmaker Ehsan Jafri, had been among the 68 people who died during an attack on Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Society during the 2002 riots.
Appearing on behalf of the riot victims today, advocate Mihir Desai submitted that the events following the burning of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, were pre planned and not spontaneous.
The riots had broken out after the Sabarmati Express fire, in which 59 people had died.
Mrs Jafri - who had alleged the complicity of Mr Modi and others in the riots - had approached the High Court in March 2014 after a lower court had upheld the closure report filed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team.
The court had agreed with the SIT that Mr Modi made enough efforts to see that law and order situation does not deteriorate further.