Enough evidence to conduct trial against Modi: Zakia's lawyer

Citing amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran's report, Zakia Jafri today claimed there was enough evidence to warrant a probe and trial against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in connection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots despite a clean chit by SIT.
"There is sufficient evidence to proceed for a triable case, a case in which trial needs to be conducted," Jafri's lawyer Mihir Desai said, quoting from Ramachandran's report.
Jafri, whose husband and Congress leader Ehsan Jafri was killed in the riots, has challenged the Special Investigation Team's closure report before the magistrate's court here.
Jafri, in her complaint to the Supreme Court, had accused Modi and others of involvement in the conspiracy behind the wide-spread communal violence.

Desai argued before Metropolitan Magistrate B J Ganatra that the meeting called by Modi following Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002, was attended by top bureaucrats and police officials who gave differing accounts of what transpired in the meeting to SIT.
The then acting chief secretary Swarnakanta Varma didn't recall exactly what happened at this law and order review meeting, Desai said.
She told the SIT (set up by the Supreme Court upon Jafri's complaint) that she didn't remember whether the Chief Minister had asked the police 'to go soft' on Hindu rioters, advocate Desai said.
Anil Mukim, another bureaucrat, told SIT that he left the meeting early, but ministers were coming and going, Desai argued. While other bureaucrats who attended the meeting, including the then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner P C Pande, told SIT that no minister was ever present.