Godhra riots case: Zakia Jafri takes on Modi, looks forward to justice

Zakia Jafri, the wife of 2002 post-Godhra riots victim and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, on Monday accused the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat Government of playing 'dirty tricks' to divert attention from the case.

"The case was interrupted in- between because of the transfer and relocation of the judges, now that things are in order the case has reopened," said Jafri, when asked to comment on the reason for the delay in this case

" Now, they (Narendra Modi's Government) want to push the case further to benefit during the elections. But now, that the case has reopened I am very hopeful that the decision will be in my favour," she added.

The Gujarat High Court today resumed hearing Zakia Jafri's case, where she has challenged the clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 61 others.

She continues to claim that they were conspirators in the 2002 Gujarat riots in which her husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was one of those killed in the Gulburg Society massacre in Ahmedabad.

Earlier, the lawyer of the Supreme Court-appointed SIT, which had given a clean chit to Modi in 2002 post-Godhra riots case after investigating complaint filed by Zakia Jafri, in April had said, "Modi has never said that go and kill people". Opposing the protest petition filed by Jafri against SIT's closure report, its lawyer R. S. Jamuar said, "(social activist) Teesta Setalvad and others have falsified the complaint targeting Chief Minister who had never said that go and kill people."

During the second day of arguments, SIT lawyer targeted Setalvad, who has taken up the cause of riot victims, and who is helping Zakia, whose husband, Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was killed in the riots. Dubbing Setalvad as the sole "writer" of "fictitious" complaint against Modi and others, advocate Jamuar said: "The so-called incident of CM giving instructions to high-level police officers not to take action against the rioters is a sole creation of Teesta Setalvad. There is no evidence."

The 2002 Gujarat violence was a series of incidents starting with the Godhra train burning and the subsequent communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat.

On 27 February 2002, the Sabarmati Express train was attacked at Godhra by a Muslim mob. 58 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya were killed in the attack. This in turn prompted retaliatory attacks against Muslims and general communal riots on a large scale across the state, in which 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were ultimately killed and 223 more people were reported missing.

The Supreme Court, in its order dated February 7, had allowed Zakia to file a fresh protest petition and had also directed that she be supplied with entire report of the inquiry by the SIT in her complaint to enable her to file the protest petition.

Ehsaan Jafri was among 69 people allegedly burnt alive by a rioting mob on February 28, 2002 at the Gulbarg Housing Society in Ahmedabad.