Gujarat Riot: Plea Against Clean Chit Of SIT To PM Modi

Gujarat riot: plea against clean chit of SIT to PM Modi, hearing in SC on April 13.

The Supreme Court has deferred hearing on the petition of Zakia Jafri, wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, regarding the Gujarat riots.

Now the court will hear the matter on April 13. Zakia’s lawyer Kapil Sibal had sought adjournment of the hearing in the case.

During this time, the court made it clear that any demand to postpone the hearing in the future would not be accepted. The petition has challenged the clean chit of SIT to the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi.

A bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar, appearing for Jafri, had asked senior counsel Kapil Sibal to postpone the trial till April, as many lawyers are busy with the Maratha reservation case, which is currently heard by a five-judge constitution bench.

Gujarat riot: However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared on behalf of the Gujarat government and opposed the plea to defer the hearing, and demanded to hear of the case next week.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of the SIT (Special Investigation Team), also opposed the postponement of the hearing, and said that the matter should be decided.

However, the bench ordered that the matter would be heard on April 13 and that no request to defer the hearing in the future would be entertained. The bench also included Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Krishna Murari.

The apex court in February last year fixed the hearing of the case for April 14, 2020, stating that the matter has been adjourned several times and will be heard on the same day.

Earlier, Jafri’s counsel had told the apex court that notice needs to be issued in the petition as it pertains to an alleged ‘big conspiracy’ from 27 February 2002 to May 2002.

Gujarat riot: Let me tell you that Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed on February 28, 2002, in Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society.

The S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was torched in Godhra with 59 people dead, following which riots broke out in Gujarat. Till then Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

On 8 February 2012, the SIT filed a closure report giving a clean chit to 63 others, including Narendra Modi and senior government officials, stating that there was no prosecution evidence against him.

Zakia Jafri filed a petition in the apex court in 2018, challenging the Gujarat High Court’s order of October 5, 2017, dismissing her petition against the SIT’s decision.