Gujarat riots: Hearing on Zakia Jafri's petition almost over

With the conclusion of arguments by the lawyer of Special Investigation Team yesterday, the hearing of riot victim Zakia Jafri's petition against its probe report, giving clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others, is almost over.
Metropolitan Magistrate B J Ganatra, who has been hearing the arguments for the last four months, has now allowed Jafri to file written submissions on September 18.
Jafri, whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the 2002 post-Godhra riots, has challenged the Supreme Court-appointed SIT's report. The SIT had probed her complaint that Modi and some others conspired to facilitate the riots.

As per SIT's report, submitted to the magistrate in February 2012, the available evidence was not enough to prosecute the persons against whom Jafri has levelled accusations.
She then filed this petition, seeking rejection of this report and charge-sheeting of Modi and others.
Defending the SIT's conclusions, its lawyer R S Jamuar argued that no direct or circumstantial evidence backing Jafri's allegations was found; no evidential value could be attached to the testimonies of IPS officers R B Sreekumar, Sanjeev Bhatt and Rahul Sharma, cited by Jafri as witnesses.

These officers held a grudge against Modi government, the lawyer said.

On the other hand, Jafri's lawyers Mihir Desai and S M Vora argued that SIT ignored many crucial pieces of evidence, and it was shielding the culprits responsible for the spread of violence after Godhra train burning incident, which led to killing of over 1,200 people across Gujarat.
Jafri's lawyers also contended that Sreekumar and other two officers did not speak up about Modi government's complicity after they were punished or denied promotions, but the government punished them after they spoke up the truth.