Gujarat court accepts clean chit to Narendra Modi in 2002 riots

mangaloretoday.com

Ahmedabad, Dec 26:  A Gujarat court today accepted the clean chit to Narendra Modi in the 2002 communal violence in the state, in a major reprieve for the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate ahead of the national election due by May.

The court rejected the petition of Zakia Jafri, whose husband Ehsan Jafri was burnt alive during the riots, challenging the closure report of a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team.

 

Here are the latest updates on this story:

    Zakia Jafri, who broke down in court, told NDTV she was saddened by the order but not disheartened. Her lawyer has said that they will challenge the verdict.

    Mrs Jafri had alleged that Mr Modi colluded with senior ministers, bureaucrats and the police to fan the communal violence that tore through the state. (Zakia Jafri’s plea against clean chit to Modi ’a piece of fiction’: SIT counsel)These allegations were investigated by a Special Investigating Team or SIT appointed by the Supreme Court in March 2008.

After four years, the SIT said in February 2012 that there was no prosecutable evidence against Mr Modi and the others and filed a closure report indicating its inquiry has ended.

Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress MP, was among the 68 people of Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad, killed by a mob on February 28, 2002. Mr Jafri’s frantic phone calls for help to the police and politicians were allegedly ignored.

Mr Modi was interrogated in 2010 by the SIT for over nine hours.

In April 2011, Sanjiv Bhatt, who was a senior police officer in 2002, said that at a meeting, Mr Modi told him and other cops to allow Hindus in the state to exact revenge for the killing of 59 karsevaks on the Sabarmati Express near Godhra.

But the SIT concluded that Sanjiv Bhatt’s testimony was not reliable because he was nursing a grudge against the government as he was sidelined by the Modi administration.

The SIT also alleged that the petition was a motivated one and was filed at the instance of activist Teesta Setalvad.

Today’s verdict comes just as the BJP has decided to launch an aggressive "Modi-for-PM" campaign ahead of next year’s national election.