Ahmedabad:
More than a year after the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) filed a closure report in the 2002 Gujarat riots case, riot victim Zakia Jafri will file her protest petition against the report. The SIT had given a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi after investigating his role in the riots.
The Supreme Court, in February, had allowed Ms Jafri to file a fresh protest petition and had also directed that she be supplied with entire SIT report to enable her to file the protest petition.
Ms Jafri, widow of Eshan Jafri who was burnt alive in the 2002 Gujarat riots, had approached the Supreme Court challenging the magistrate's order. In her petition, Ms Jafri asked for documents related to the investigation, including an interim report by SIT member A K Malhotra.
Following the Supreme Court's orders, the SIT had supplied the copy of the Malhotra report to Ms Jafri and Metropolitan Magistrate B J Ganatra gave her time to file protest petition by April 15.
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.
The Supreme Court had set up the SIT to look into Ms Jafri's case and other cases. In February this year, the SIT gave a clean chit to Mr Modi, saying it has found no evidence against him and 61 other accused in the case. The SIT filed a closure report on which the Ahmedabad court has been conducting a hearing.