Gujarat riots case: SC dismisses Zakia Jafri’s plea challenging SIT's clean chit to Modi, others
New Delhi, June 24: The Supreme Court has dismissed the plea of Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging SIT's clean chit to 64 people, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi (then CM of Gujarat).
The top court upheld the Gujarat High Court ruling and said Zakia Jafri's appeal is devoid of merits and deserves to be dismissed.
A bench headed by Justices AM Khanwilkar ruled that it finds the Jafri's appeal devoid of merit and said: "After cogitating over the matter, we uphold the decision of the Magistrate in accepting the stated final report dated February 8, 2012, submitted by the SIT, as it is and rejecting the protest petition filed by the appellant."
"We do not countenance the submission of the appellant regarding infraction of rule of law in the matter of investigation and the approach of the Magistrate and the High Court in dealing with the final report. Accordingly, we hold that this appeal is devoid of merits and resultantly, deserves to be dismissed in the aforementioned terms. We order accordingly," the bench added.
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The Supreme Court pronounced the verdict in which it had reserved the order on December 9, 2021.
On February 28, 2002, when there was unrest at the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad, 69 people were killed, including Ehsan Jafri. 64 people, including Narendra Modi who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat during the riots in the State, have been named in Zakia Jafri's challenge against the SIT's clean chit.
Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, who is representing Jafri, told the bench, which also included Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar, that their arguments have nothing to do with any alleged involvement of the former chief minister and instead focus on a bigger conspiracy that the SIT did not look into.
SIT, on the other hand, had opposed Jafri's plea, saying there is a sinister plot behind the complaint to probe the "larger conspiracy" behind the 2002 Gujarat riots and the original complaint by Jafri was directed by social activist Teesta Setalvad, who levelled allegations just to keep the pot boiling.
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-PTC News
