Teesta Setalvad disappointed with court decision on Gujarat riots, will appeal

Human rights activist Teesta Setalvad on Thursday expressed her disappointment with district court's decision to reject the plea of Zakia Jafri against Special Investigation Team closure report in 2002 Gujarat riots and maintained that the court rejected crucial evidence collected by the SIT.

Reacting to the judgement of the court, Setalvad said, "We are hugely disappointed with this judgement. We are disappointed with the fact that huge voluminous evidence collected by the SIT has been ignored by the judge. We had to go through the rationale for the rejection. But we will appeal 100 percent in the shortest period of time."

"We will certainly go further and we maintain that there was a huge criminal conspiracy at the highest level in the echelons of Gujarat Government. So, we are disappointed but not disheartened," she added.

Earlier today, a district court rejected the plea of Zakia Jafri against Special Investigation Team (SIT) closure report that gave a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in 2002 Gujarat riots.

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

Zakia Jafri is the wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was among 69 people killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre here during the 2002 riots.

SIT had submitted its report on February 8 last year, clearing Modi's name in any conspiracy.

She had filed a petition against the SIT report in April seeking its rejection and an order to file charge sheet against Modi and others during the 2002 riots.