SC nod to Zakia for protest petition against SIT report

SC nod to Zakia for protest petition against SIT report

The Supreme Court today allowedZakia Jafri to file a fresh protest petition in a trial courtagainst the SIT's closure report reportedly giving clean chitto Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in a 2002 riot case inAhmedabad in which her husband and ex-Congress MP was killed.

The apex court directed that the widow of slain leaderEhsan Jafri be supplied with entire report of the inquiry bythe Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the 2002 GulburgHousing Society riot case of Ahmedabad to enable her to filethe protest petition.

It clarified that the report shall be supplied withoutthe comments of the SIT chief and she can file a protestpetition within two months from the date of receiving thematerial against the SIT's closure report in the case in which69 people, including her husband, were killed by a mob onFebruary 28, 2002.

"We clarify that the petitioner (Jafri) is entitled toentire inquiry report placed in sealed envelope before thiscourt on May 12, 2010," a bench comprising justices PSathasivam, Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai said.

It also set aside two orders of the Ahmedabad trial courtof July 16 and November 27 of last year.

She had filed an appeal against the orders rejecting herdemand for preliminary report filed by A K Malhotra, member ofthe SIT, in the Supreme Court and accepting the SIT closurereport filed on March 13, 2012 in the case respectively.

The bench in its order said that the statement recordedduring the inquiry of the complaint filed by Jafri should betreated as the statement recorded under section 161 of theCode of Criminal Procedure which involves examination ofwitnesses.

It also said that the statements recorded during theinquiry would only be used for taking decision on the closurereport filed by the SIT into the case.

The apex court made it clear that "the present order is confined to the case in which the complaint was filed by Zakiaon June 8, 2006" in which she had sought inquiry against Modiand others with regard to 2002 riots.

Gujarat's Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta toldthe bench that the state government was not taking adverserialstand in the case. He said six out of the nine casesinvestigated by the SIT have resulted in conviction.

Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who was assisting thecourt as amicus curaie in the matter, said the widow wasentitled for entire material sought by her.

The apex court on September 12, 2011 had passed the orderrelating to supply of documents to Zakia.

It had also asked the SIT, which probed the riot casesincluding the Ahmedabad Gulburg Housing Society massacre casein which former Congress MP Jafri had been killed, to forwardits final report to the local court.

Zakia has filed the petition challenging the trialcourt's order rejecting her plea for supply of some documentsrelating to the investigation in the case including the probereport filed by Malhotra.

She was seeking the documents to file a protest petitionagainst the SIT's closure report in the case.

Zakia contended that the court's refusal to allow heraccess the documents pertaining to the investigation by theSIT into the case was coming in the way of her filing theprotest petition against the closure report.

The court was hearing Zakia's appeal against July 16,2012 order of the trial court, which had rejected her demandfor preliminary report filed by Malhotra in the Supreme Courtafter the inquiry into her complaint against Modi and otherswith regard to 2002 riots.

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