Order on Zakia Jafri's plea against SIT clean chit to Narendra Modi tomorrow

A Magistrate court here is likely to pronounce tomorrow its order on Zakia Jafri's petition against the closure report of Special Investigation Team which gave a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 58 others in connection with a 2002 communal riots case.

Magistrate B J Ganatra had earlier said he would deliver the order on October 28, but it was deferred to December 2, and then to December 26.

Arguments got over in September 2013.

Jafri, 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, contends that Modi and others should be tried for their role in the conspiracy which facilitated the state-wide violence.

SIT, appointed by the Supreme Court, probed Jafri's allegations against Modi and others, and filed a final report on February 8, 2012, which said there wasn't sufficient evidence to prosecute them.

SIT counsel R S Jamuar argued before the court that no direct or circumstantial evidence supporting Jafri's allegations was found, while her lawyers argued that SIT ignored the relevant evidence and shielded the main culprits.

About a thousand people were killed in the riots.