Court did injustice to me, will approach HC: Zakia
18 Jun 2016 5:53 AM IST
Zakia Jafri, the wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was among the 69 killed in the Gulberg society massacre, on Friday expressed dissatisfaction over the verdict in the case, saying the court did “injustice” to her. She added that she would approach the High Court against the verdict of the special SIT court, which has sentenced 11 convicts to life imprisonment in the case.
Zakia is unhappy with the seven-year jail term awarded to 12 convicts and 10-year sentence to another convict, who were held guilty for lesser offences and not murder. She is also miffed with the acquittal of 36 others in the case.
“I don’t understand why 11 were given life imprisonment and some are given just seven or 10 years of imprisonment. Why this selective approach as they all were part of a violent mob, which killed people inside the society. This is wrong justice. The court did injustice to me,” Zakia said.
“I was there in the society when the violent mob brutally killed my husband (Ehsan Jafri). He was an MP, yet he was hacked to death and burnt alive in the middle of the road. Today’s verdict is not sufficient for such crime. I wished that court had given lifer to all who were involved in the crime,” she said. She said those, acquitted in the case, were also guilty and should be punished.
“My fight for justice will continue. Why these 36 were acquitted? Did they save any resident of the society? They were also part of the mob. I am not at all satisfied with today’s verdict. I will approach the high court against it”, Zakia said.
A special SIT court here on Friday sentenced 11 convicts to life imprisonment in the case of burning
alive of 69 people, including former Congress MP Eshan Jafri, in the 2002 post-Godhra violence. The court awarded 10-year jail to one of the 13 convicted for lesser offences, while 12 others have been given seven-year sentence each.
However, her son Tanvir Jafri said there was definitely “some sense of closure” at the convictions but it would have to be seen why some of the accused were not convicted. “We will definitely contest in the High Court some of the acquittals,” he said. Former SIT chief RK Raghavan who had probed the incident, welcomed the judgement.
BJP, Cong spar over massacre case verdict
The Gulberg massacre case verdict on Friday sparked a war of words between the BJP and the Congress, with the two parties accusing each other of trying to turn the issue into a tool for their own political advantage.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, “Those who played into hands of political leaders are behind bars, while those, who incited them for their political gains, have subsequently acquired power. Those who became a tool of such leaders, who always believed in polarisation, will have to spend their lives in jail.”
On the other hand, Gujarat BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya has rubbished the Congress’ allegations and said there was no conspiracy behind the massacre. He also accused the Congress and social activist Teesta Setalvad of trying to use the conspiracy theory for political and personal gains.
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