Ahmedabad:
An Ahmedabad court will today begin the hearing on the protest petition filed by Zakiya Jafri against the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team's closure report on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 61 others for their alleged involvement in 2002 Gujarat riots.
Ms Jafri, wife of Congress leader Ehsaan Jafri, had filed the petition last week as per Supreme Court direction that the victim should be heard before taking a decision on the closure report.
Ms Jafri's case relates to the killing of her husband and 68 people on February 28, 2002 at the Gulberg Housing Society in Ahmedabad where the Jafris lived. Ms Jafri alleges that Mr Modi and several senior ministers and officials did nothing to prevent the killings, despite several frantic calls made by Mr Jafri to the police and even to the Chief Minister's office, for help as a mob attacked the housing complex.
Ms Jafri's petition now claims despite a plethora of intelligence messages to indicate revenge killings by the rioters, the administration took no preventive action. The petition cites 7500 state intelligence bureau and control room fax messages, highlighting the build-up to the riots soon after the Godhra carnage. One of the intelligence inputs said karsevaks had given explosive interviews to a TV station at Godhra and had threatened to unleash violence against the Muslims, according to the petition.
The petition also claims records show Mr Modi was in close touch with VHP leader Jaideep Patel, who she also alleges of abetting the riots, immediately after information of the Godhra tragedy came in, even before he met home department officials and ministers.
The SIT, however, after analysing the documents, has claimed in its closure report that there was no prosecutable evidence against those named in Ms Jafri's petition. The court will now conduct daily hearings before deciding on the closure report.