The Supreme Court has finally agreed to hear the petition of Zakia Jafri against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. Jafri’s husband, a former Congress MP, was burnt alive in the genocide of 2002 when Modi was the state’s chief minister.
The Gujarat High Court last year had rejected her plea challenging the clean chit given to Modi for his role in the religious pogrom that killed more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. Modi was accused of turning a blind eye as the state’s chief minister even when thousands were being attacked by Hindutva terrorists aided by the state police.
Jafri’s petition alleges a ‘larger conspiracy’ in the genocide. The SIT had later given a clean chit to Modi for his role in the riots. The head of the SIT, which exonerated Modi, was RK Raghavan. The Modi government rewarded him by appointing him as the ambassador to Cyprus last year.
Another member of the SIT was YC Modi, who too was rewarded with the appointment as the new NIA boss last year by the Modi government.
The High Court in Gujarat had refused to accept Jafri’s allegation of ‘a larger conspiracy’ last year. Her husband Ehsaan Jafri, was burnt alive by the Hindu mob, who attacked Gulberg Society on 28 February 2002. 69 people were massacred that day in the society.
The court, however, allowed Jafri to challenge the lower court’s decision. The lower court had said that did not have power to direct the SIT to probe the case further. Raghavan-headed SIT had submitted its report giving clean to Modi and others on 8 February, 2012, while the lower court gave its verdict in 2013.
She had approached the High Court in 2014 against the lower court’s order accepting the SIT report that exonerated Modi claiming that he had taken all possible steps to control the genocide. The HC had begun its hearing in 2015.
