The Supreme Court on Monday deferred till November 26 hearing on the plea of Zakia Jafri challenging the clean chit given by the Special Investigating Team (SIT) to Narendra Modi, who was then Gujarat Chief Minister, in connection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
Zakia, the wife of Ehsan Jafri, an ex-MP who was killed in one of the worst incidents during the riots, has challenged the Gujarat High Court's October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the SIT's decision.
A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said, "The matter will take some time for hearing. The plea will be heard on November 26".
At the outset, senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for the SIT, said Zakia's plea was not maintainable and social activist Teesta Setalvad cannot be the second petitioner in the case. The bench said it will look into the application before hearing the matter on making Setalvad as the second petitioner in Jafri's plea. During the previous hearing, Jafri's counsel had said that notice needs to be issued in the plea as it pertains to the aspect of alleged "larger conspiracy" during the period from February 27, 2002 and May 2002 and had also maintained that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report in the case before a trial judge, a protest was filed by the petitioner which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering "substantiated merits".
On February 8, 2012, the SIT filed a closure report, giving the clean chit to Modi and 63 others, including senior government officials, saying there was "no prosecutable evidence" against them. Ehsan Jafri was among 68 people who were killed at the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad when a mob attacked it on February 28, 2002, a day after the S-6 Coach of the Sabarmati Express returning from Ayodhya at Godhra was burnt, triggering the riots in Gujarat.
