New Delhi, Jun 24 (LAB) The Supreme Court today dismissed the plea of Zakia Jafri, who challenged the order of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Narender Modi who was the Gujarat chief minister then.
A bench comprising Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice CT Ravikumar while dismissing the plea and said that they uphold the decision of the Magistrate in accepting the closure report submitted by the SIT in the larger conspiracy probe in the Gujarat riots in 2002.
Narendra Modi and several others were accused in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The bench said that they do not countenance the contention of the petitioner regarding the infraction of rule of law in the investigation.
The bench said that the appeal of Zakia Jafri is devoid of merits and deserves to be dismissed.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared on behalf of the state of Gujrat and said that Zakia Jafri’s petition was filed to gain political mileage.
Zakia Jafri is the widow of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the Gulberg Society massacre during the 2002 Gujarat riots. She filed the special leave petition in the Supreme Court challenging the October 2017 judgement of the Gujarat High Court. The High Court at that time granted liberty to Jafri to seek further investigation.
The Supreme Court in 2011 directed the SIT to submit its closure report before the concerned Magistrate and the petition was then given the liberty to file her objections, if any, to the report.
The bench had reserved its judgment on Zakia Jafri’s petition seeking a probe behind the Gujarat riots on December 9, 2021.
The petitioner was handed a copy of the same in 2013 and then, she filed a petition opposing the closure report, which gave a clean chit to several bureaucrats and other politicians, including Narendra Modi./LAB/SNG/