Gujarat High Court rejects Zakia Jafri’s plea; rules 2002 riots were not larger conspiracy

Ahmedabad:

In short

Gujarat High Court today rejected Zakia Jafri’s plea seeking action against then Chief Minister and present Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others in connection with 2002 riots. The High Court upheld closure report of Special Investigation Team(SIT) and lower court order that gave clean chit to Narendra Modi and others. Gujarat High Court in its order said that 2002 riots were not part of larger conspiracy. The High Court said lower court erred in saying it doesn’t have power to order fresh probe. Petitioner can go back to lower court and demand it. Zakia can challenge the lower court decision that it has got no power to direct SIT to further probe the case.

Detail story

The Gujarat High Court today rejected the plea of slain former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri’s widow Zakia Jafri,challenging a lower court order upholding ‘clean chit’ to the then chief minister (now Prime Minister) Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots cases in the state that broke out after the burning of a coach of Sabarmati express near Godhara railway station killing 59.

The court of single bench judge Justice (Mrs) Sonia Gokani upheld the lower court order which has accepted in December 2013 the SIT’s closure report giving clean chit to then CM Modi and over 50 others.
The report filed in February 2012 says that there were no larger conspiracy behind the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Justice Gokani however allowed the petitioner to go to a higher court (ie the double bench in the High Court or the apex court) for appeal.

Justice Gokani had earlier heard from all the concerned sides about various aspects of the case and SIT report, clean chit and complaint. She had asked that how this matter can be differentiated from the Gulberg society massacre case to which Zakia’s cousel Mihir Desai said that the two matters should not be compared.

SIT counsel on the other hand had reiterated his earlier stand that the SIT investigation was under the watchful eyes of the Supreme Court and challenging its report was not not proper.

Earlier the court had almost completed the hearing on Zakia’s plea in June this year. After that owing to various technical reasons the pronouncement of judgement had been deferred a couple of times.

Zakia, whose husband and Ehsan Jafri was among 69 people killed and burnt by a mob at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002 a day after the Godhara train burning incident, had moved high court on March 18, 2014 challenging the December 27, 2013 lower court order which upheld the apex court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT to investigate major Gujarat riots cases) report of 2012 giving clean chit to then CM Modi in Gujarat riots cases.

The hearing in the High Court began from August 2015. The lower ( metropolitan) court here had rejected Zakia’s plea to book Modi and others for criminal conspiracy (120-B of the IPC), after which she moved the High Court on the issue of larger criminal conspiracy involving Modi and others behind 2002 riots cases.. Her over 500 page complaint also named bureaucrats, police and private individuals apart from Modi and other politicians as conspirators of Gujarat riots. It alleged that the Metropolitan Magistrate had accepted the closure report of SIT without considering substantive arguments of the complainant. The NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CPJ), run by controversial social activist Teesta Setalvad’s NGO citizen for justice and peace was also a co-complainant in the matter. The criminal review petition by Zakia and Setalvad, had demanded making Modi and over 50 others as accused on charges of criminal conspiracy behind the riots.

During the course of hearing SIT advocate C S Vaidyanathan had in his concluding argument said that the SIT report challenged by Zakia was in fact based on the investigation conducted under ‘the watchful eyes of the apex court and was largely accepted by all’. He also had said that the lower court had looked into all aspects of allegations to conclude that there was no further need to investigate the matter from larger conspiracy angle.

On the other hand Zakia’s counsel Mihir Desai had claimed that the magistrate who accepted the SIT’s closure report without considering all aspects. The court had after conclusion of the hearing had also sought the status of various pleas related to the matter filed in the apex court and another bench of the High Court.

Notably, a special SIT court had on June 17 last year awarded life terms to 11 of the 24 convicts of Gulberg Society case and 10 years term for one while 7 years term for remaining 12 including VHP leader Atul Vaidya. There were a total of 66 named accused of whom 6 had died during the course of trial while 36 were acquitted by the SIT court. Zakia has also challenged that order questioning the acquittal of so many accused.

DeshGujarat