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A local court in Ahmedabad today accepted the report of special investigation team (SIT) giving clean chit to BJP's prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and others with regard to allegations of conspiracy behind the 2002 riots.
Metropolitan Magistrate BJ Ganatra rejected the plea of 2002 riot victim Zakia Jafri challenging the closure report filed by the SIT claiming that there was no sufficient material evidence to prosecute Modi and 58 other named in her protest petition.
Speaking about the court order, SIT counsel RS Jamuar said, "The magistrate has given a 300-350 page order. I have not read the entire order. But he (magistrate) told Zakia's counsel Mihir Desai that their protest petition has been rejected." This means that court has accepted SIT's report, he said. "With this there is a judicial stamp that our report has been fair," Jamuar added.
Zakia, whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was among 69 people killed in the Gulbarg society massacre here during the 2002 post-Godhra riots, had filed a petition objecting the SIT's closure report absolving Modi and 58 others of any conspiracy behind the communal riots that had claimed over 1,000 lives.
"Truth by nature is self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear"- Mahatma Gandhi
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 26, 2013Protesting SIT's report, Zakia, on April 15 this year, filed a petition demanding the rejection of report as well as an order from the court to file charge sheet against Modi and others.
The hearing on Zakia's plea was completed on September 30 and magistrate had scheduled verdict on October 28. But the pronouncement was deferred to to December 2 and later for today.
Reacting to the court verdict Zakia said that she will appeal against today's order. "I am no going to lose heart. I will definitely appeal in higher court after going through the judgement in detail," she said. Zakia's counsel Mihir Desai said, "One thing I can say, as a lawyer, is that according to us, the evidence which was collected by the SIT was sufficient to implicate the persons against whom we have filed a complaint. There were other evidences, which SIT should have collected but had not gone deep into it....Our arguments were at both levels. Our arguments have been rejected at both the levels."
"Obviously there is a hierarchy of courts. So we will be going to higher courts. We can go to sessions court, we can go to high court and supreme court. Which will be decided only after we see the judgement," he added.
Desai further said, "Somebody asked me if Modi breath easy now, to which I say, yes, he can breath easy for 20 to 25 days and then we are coming again with the appeal."
While defending its report and demanding the rejection of Jafri's petition, SIT counsel R S Jamuar had submitted that no direct or circumstantial evidence has been found during its investigation which can prima facie support Jafri's allegations.
SIT, during its submissions and in replies to the issues raised by Jafri, contended that no evidentiary value could be attached to the testimonies given by three IPS officers R B Sreekumar, Sanjeev Bhatt and Rahul Sharma, whom Jafri cited as witnesses.
SIT also blamed the three officers for holding grudge against the state government and accused them of conspiring to fabricate evidence to 'malign' Modi.
However, Zakia's lawyers maintained that there was enough evidence to prosecute Modi and others for alleged role in the post-Godhra riots.
He had argued that SIT, throughout its investigation, totally ignored the evidence and material and even alleged that the Supreme Court appointed probe agency was shielding the main culprits behind the 2002 riots, in which close to 1,000 people were killed.
He also alleged that the SIT had been 'misleading' the court and 'deliberately distorting' higher court's orders.
