2002 Gujarat Riots: Supreme Court to hear on Monday plea against clean chit to Modi

The Supreme Court will hear on Monday (November 19) a plea filed by Zakia  Jafri, the widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging the clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top politicians and bureaucrats in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The Gujarat High Court in October 2017 had upheld the clean chit given to Modi, the former chief minister of the state, and 58 others by the Special Investigation Team.

Zakia had moved the HC against a closure report filed by the SIT on the issue of larger criminal conspiracy involving Modi and others behind 2002 riots cases.

Her husband Ehsan Jafri was one of the victims of the riots as a mob had set their house in city's Gulberg Society on fire.

The criminal review petition by Zakia and NGO Citizen for Justice and Peace, run by activist Teesta Setalvad, had demanded making Modi and 59 others as accused on charges of criminal conspiracy behind the riots.

Zakia had also prayed for the rejection of the closure report of the Supreme Court appointed SIT giving clean chit to Modi and others. In December 2013, a metropolitan court had rejected Jafri's plea to book Modi and others for criminal conspiracy, after which she moved the HC in 2014.

On February 28, 2002, following the Godhra train carnage, 68 people, including Ehsan Jafri, were killed by a mob at Gulberg Society here during the riots.

(With PTI inputs)