2002 Gujarat carnage: SC adjourns hearing in Zakia Jafri plea, case to be heard on Nov. 26

The Supreme Court on Monday, November 19, adjourned till November 26 Zakia Jafri’s petition challenging the acquittal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Godhra riots case. Zakia’s Special Leave Petition (SLP) came up last week before Justices AM Khanwilkar and Deepak Gupta who fixed November 19 as the date for the hearing.

The plea was filed by Zakia Jafri, the wife of Ehsan Jafri, an ex-MP who was killed during violence that took place in 2002 Gujarat riots. Ehsan Jafri was killed by a mob which attacked the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on the afternoon of February 28, 2002.

Zakia Jafri had challenged the October 5, 2017 judgment of the Gujarat High Court which gave a clean chit to then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and other politicians and senior bureaucrats by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in its closure report, citing lack of “prosecutable evidence” against them.

Gujarat High Court, last year, upheld the judgment of the metropolitan court. It rejected Zakia’s allegations that cases such as Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gam and Gulberg were part of a larger conspiracy. Five years after the Gujarat riots, Zakia had made allegations against the Gujarat CM Modi and the officers from the state government.

80 year old Zakia’s Special Leave Petition (SLP) came up last week before Justices A M Khanwilkar and Deepak Gupta who fixed November 19 as the date for the hearing.