Zakia Jafri Opposes In Supreme Court Clean Chit To PM Modi In 2002 Riots

Appearing for Zakia Jafri, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said, ""This is about law and order, administrative failure. People were massacred because of police inaction... I am not concerned with any high dignitaries"

The Special Investigation Team looking into the 2002 Gujarat riots ignored a mass of evidence and drew conclusions without any investigation, Zakia Jafri, the widow of Ehsan Jafri -- the Congress MP murdered in the riots -- told the Supreme Court today. The SIT did not record statements, seize phones, check how bombs were manufactured and straightaway filed closure reports, contended the 81-year-old, who has challenged the investigative team's clean chit to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

For nearly 20 years, Zakia Jafri has been continuing her battle for justice. Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed at the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002 -- a day after the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra, killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat.

The SIT had submitted its closure report in February 2012 -- a decade after the riots -- and gave a clean chit against PM Modi and 63 others, citing "no prosecutable evidence". The Supreme Court has started hearing the case after multiple adjournments.

Arguing on behalf of Zakia Jafri before a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar, senior advocate and former Union minister Kapil Sibal said yesterday that the issue goes beyond what happened at the Gulberg society.