2002 Gujarat Riots: Clean Chit to Modi

AHMEDABAD: In big relief to Narendra Modi, metropolitan magistrate BJ Ganatra rejected Zakia Jafri's protest petition against the Supreme Court-appointed SIT's clean chit to Narendra Modi and 57 others in a 2002 Gujarat riots case.
The magistrate had earlier fixed October 28 and then December 2 for pronouncement of verdict on Zakia Jafri's petition against the clean chit to Modi and 57 others which included top BJP leaders and police officers. Since the judge could not complete the order, he posted it for Thursday.
Zakia's husband, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was killed in the riots along with 69 others in one of the worst massacres at Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.
Proceedings in the matter ended on September 30. The court has got more than 25,000 pages of the SIT's probe report for perusal. Further, Zakia Jafri had filed a voluminous protest petition and written replies. The SIT too filed a written reply as rejoinder.
It was on September 12, 2011 that the Supreme Court had said it would no longer monitor the case after the SIT cleared Modi of the accusation that he had failed to discharge his constitutional duty to intervene swiftly to stop communal riots. The case was sent back to the lower court.
Modi had immediately tweeted, "God is great," and announced the three-day Sadbhavana fast to embrace Muslims. The fast, started on his 61st birthday on September 17, 2011 had launched his campaign to become BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
The SIT claimed that it could not find any prosecutable evidence against the accused persons regarding their involvement in the alleged conspiracy behind the riots. It had even refused to treat IPS officers like RB Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt as witnesses on the ground that their statements are hearsay evidence.
On the other hand, Zakia has alleged that the SIT has been shielding Modi and others by not believing statements given by these police officers and neglecting the available evidence. Zakia has accused the SIT of playing the role of a court by adjudging the truth of the available evidence. Her lawyers contended that the investigation was incomplete and the probe agency had not even done it seriously.
On the opinion of amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran that Modi may be prosecuted for inciting communal hatred, the SIT has said that there is no evidence to prosecute him, and the incident alleged was beyond the ambit of its probe.
In 2006, Zakia had filed a complaint about the role allegedly played by Modi and 62 others during the 2002 riots. When Gujarat police did not register her complaint, she moved the Gujarat high court which asked her to approach a magisterial court. She chose to move the apex court.
The SC asked the SIT to look into the issue. When the probe team came up with a report, the SC asked it to tender it before the concerned magisterial court. Accordingly, it filed a closure report against all the accused persons on February 8 last year.
TNN