New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned till July a plea of Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging the clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several others in 2002 Gujarat riots. Ehsan Jafri was among 69 people killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre.
The SIT, appointed by the apex court, conducted the investigation into the case and gave a clean chit to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, other top politicians and bureaucrats. The clean chit was given citing lack of prosecutable evidence against them.
Challenging the Gujarat High Court’s order dated October 5, 2017, that upheld SIT’s clean chit, Zakia approached the Supreme Court alleging a larger conspiracy in the riots. The Gujarat High Court had upheld the magisterial court’s order, accepting the SIT’s closure report.
Earlier, Zakia had approached the Gujarat High Court in 2014 after the magisterial court rejected the petition challenging the SIT report.
In her petition to the Supreme Court, Zakia has stated: “Grant ad-interim order to Special Investigation Team (SIT) to carry out further investigation under section 173(8) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in regard to the petitioner’s complaint dated June 8, 2006 and the evidence placed before the learned through the protest petition dated April 15, 2013.”
