2002 Gulbarg riots case: Gujarat HC rejects Zakia Jafri's plea challenging lower court order

Gujarat High Court on Thursday rejected Zakia Jafri's plea challenging lower court order upholding SIT's clean chit to then CM Narendra Modi and others for larger conspiracy in 2002 riots.

HC allows Jafri to approach higher forums for further investigation in the case.

Jafri, wife of slain former MP Ehsan Jafri, and activist Teesta Setalvad’s NGO Citizen for Justice and Peace had moved the criminal review petition against a magistrate’s order upholding the clean chit given by the SIT to Modi and others regarding the allegations of a “larger criminal conspiracy” behind the riots.

The petition demanded that Modi and 59 others— including senior police officers and bureaucrats—be made accused for allegedly being part of a conspiracy which facilitated the riots.

It also sought the high court’s direction for fresh investigation into the matter.

Ehsan Jafri, a Congress leader, was among 68 people who were killed at the Gulberg Society here when a mob attacked it on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train burning incident which set off riots in the state.

With PTI inputs