24.6.2022, Friday :
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the plea of Zakia
Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging the Special
Investigation Team's (SIT) clean chit to 64 people, including the then Chief
Minister Narendra Modi, in the 2002 Gujarat riots case.
The top court upheld the Gujarat High Court order and said
Jafri's plea is devoid of merit.
What
the case is about
On February 28, 2002, in Ahmedabad's Gulberg
Society, 68 people were killed, including Ehsan Jafri. This occurred one day
after a Sabarmati Express coach in Godhra burned to the ground, killing 59
people and sparking riots in Gujarat.
According to Zakia, since there was a "larger
conspiracy" involved in the disturbances, she had approached the Supreme
Court.
In her petition to the Supreme Court, Zakia had stated:
"Grant ad-interim order to Special Investigation Team (SIT) to carry out a
further investigation under section 173(8) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)
in regard to the petitioner's complaint dated June 8, 2006, and the evidence
placed before the learned through the protest petition dated April 15,
2013."
Prior to this, a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar
upheld the Special Metropolitan Magistrate's order rejecting Jafri's protest
plea against the SIT's closure report.
Provided, the SIT which was appointed by the apex court to
conduct the investigation into the case, disagreed with the argument saying
that 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 in order to stir up controversy.
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