New Delhi: The Supreme Court adjourned Tuesday by two weeks the hearing on a plea of Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain MP Ehsan Jafri.She is challenging the Special Investigation Team (SIT) clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots. Zakia Jafri in the past has said that she wants the truth to come out.
A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said the matter would be listed after two weeks. He said the petitioner has circulated a letter seeking adjournment in the case. The apex court had March 16 posted the matter for hearing Tuesday. It also said that it would not entertain any more request for adjournment.
The bench had last month taken note of the request of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Jafri. He said that the matter be heard sometime in April as several advocates were busy in the Maratha reservation case which was then being heard by a five-judge Constitution bench. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Gujarat government, had then opposed the plea for adjournment.
The top court had in February last year fixed the case for hearing April 14, 2020. It said the matter had been adjourned many times and will have to be heard someday.
Prior to this, Zakia’s counsel had told the apex court that a notice needs to be issued in the plea as it relates to an alleged ‘larger conspiracy’ from February 27, 2002 to May 2002.
Ehsan was among the 68 people killed at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad February 28, 2002. His killing came a day after the S-6 Coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat.
February 8, 2012, SIT had filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Modi, now the prime minister. It also gave clean chit to 63 others, including senior government officials. The probe body said there was ‘no prosecutable evidence’ against them.
Zakia had filed a petition in the apex court in 2018 challenging the Gujarat High Court’s October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the decision of the SIT.
The plea also maintained that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report before a trial judge, the petitioner filed a protest. However, it was dismissed by the magistrate without considering ‘substantiated merits’.