New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday said it will hear on November 19 the petition filed by Zakia Ashan Jafri challenging the clean chit given by the Special Investigating Team (SIT) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, when he was the state chief minister.
Zakia, the wife of Ehsan Jafri, an ex-MP who was killed in one of the worst incidents during the riots, has challenged the Gujarat High Court's October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the SIT's decision.
A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Deepak Gupta said the matter will be heard on November 19, as the court has not gone through the petition in detail. During the brief hearing, senior advocate C U Singh, appearing for Jafri said notice needs to be issued in the plea as it pertains to the aspect of "larger conspiracy" during the period from February 27, 2002 and May 2002.
He also maintained that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report in the case before a trial judge, a protest was filed by the petitioner which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering the "substantiated merits".
On February 8, 2012, the SIT filed a closure report, giving the clean chit to Modi and 63 others, including senior government officials, saying there was "no prosecutable evidence" against them.