Gujarat riots case: Court to give its verdict on Zakia Jafri's plea for SIT report

Ahmedabad: An Ahmedabad court is expected deliver its judgement today on a petition filed by Zakia Jafri. Mrs Jafri had asked for a copy of the Special Investigation Team's (SIT) final report on the 2002 Gujarat riots. Metropolitan Magistrate M S Bhatt  will deliver his order on whether Mrs Jafri is entitled to a copy of the report.

Mrs Jafri is the wife of former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri, who was among 69 people allegedly burnt alive by a rioting mob on February 28, 2002 at the Gulbarg Housing Society in Ahmedabad where the Jafris lived.

Mrs Jafri alleges that when the mob attacked, her husband made frantic calls to the police and even to the Chief Minister's office for help but to no avail. For many years now Mrs Jafri has taken her legal battle against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 61 other senior government functionaries from court to court.

In February this year, the SIT had resisted sharing the report with co-petitioner and social activist Teesta Setalvad but had left it to the court to decide on whether it can be given to the main complainant Zakia Jafri. The court had refused to share a copy saying the SIT had not submitted the additional documents pertaining to the probe, without which it would be premature to issue the report.

The SIT team furnished the additional documents by March 15, after which Mrs Jafri approached the court again. Investigators had argued that a copy should be given only after the magistrate studies the whole report and arrives at his own conclusion on whether it accepts or rejects the SIT findings.

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If Mrs Jafri gets a copy the report will finally become public and open to larger scrutiny of media, activists and the civil society.

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