Supreme Court to hear Zakia Jafri's plea challenging SIT clean chit in 2002 Gujarat riots case

Zakia Jafri, the widow of late Congress lawmaker Ehsan Jafri, has challenged the 2012 clean chit given by the special investigation team (SIT) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi (then Gujarat chief minister) and other top politicians and bureaucrats in the state in the 2002 Gujarat riots. The Supreme Court will hear the case on Monday.

Approaching the apex court, Jafri, who lost her husband in the Gulbarga Society massacre, has challenged the Gujarat High Court's October 5, 2017, order upholding the SIT's clean chit. At that time, the Gujarat High Court had allowed her to approach higher courts and seek further investigation.

The 2014 petition in the High Court (rejected in 2017) regarding the SIT's 2012 closure report pertained to allegations of a "larger criminal conspiracy" behind the riots. A plea on the same grounds had earlier been dismissed in the Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrates court, in 2013.

That plea had been moved by Zakia Jafri and Teesta Setalvad's NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace, and demanded fresh investigations, as well as for 60 persons be made accused for allegedly facilitating the riots. The SIT, however, has contended that its probe was conducted under the Supreme Court's supervision and has been widely accepted. 

The killing of Ehsan Jafri and the Gulbarg society massacre are among the most heavily documented aspects of the 2002 riots in which over a thousand people had died, a day after the Godhra train burning triggered large-scale riots in the state.