Ahmedabad : The Gujarat High Court is expected to pronounce its order on Monday on a petition by Zakia Jafri, widow of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, challenging a lower court order upholding a clean chit to the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 riots cases.
The matter was listed for pronouncement of order on August 9, but Justice Sonia Gokani, who heard the case, had then deferred it to August 21.
The hearing in the case had concluded on July 3.
The court heard a criminal review petition moved by Jafri and activist Teesta Setalvad’s NGO Citizen for Justice and Peace, challenging the lower court order upholding the clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on the alleged larger criminal conspiracy behind the 2002 riots.
The petitioners have also demanded fresh investigation into the case.
The petition demanded that Modi and 59 others be made accused on charges of criminal conspiracy behind the riots.
On February 28, 2002, 68 people, including Ehsan Jafri, were killed by a mob at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad.
During the course of the hearing, the SIT had submitted before the court that a lower court, where the case was first heard, had looked into all aspects of allegations and concluded that there was no further need to investigate the matter from the angle of larger conspiracy.
Zakia’s lawyer Mihir Desai had told the court that the magistrate, who accepted the SIT’s closure report, did not even consider other options like rejecting the report, or ordering a fresh probe.
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