Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed inside the gated Gulbarg Society, a neighborhood in Chamanpura, Ahmedabad, along with 68 others, a day after the 2002 Godhra riots in Gujarat.
Mr. Jafri was elected the President of Congress’ Ahmedabad branch in 1972, later becoming an MP for Ahmedabad in 1977.
Ms. Jafri first submitted a complaint in 2006, saying the police had not registered FIRs against Mr. Modi and other top politicians, in connection with the violence, in which she lost her husband.
The Supreme Court ordered the government to re-investigate the Gulbarg Society incident in 2008 and set up a special investigation team (SIT) to look into Ms. Jafri’s complaint.
The SIT report gave a clean chit to Modi and was directed by the Supreme Court to submit its closure report before the concerned Magistrate, and Ms. Jafri was given the liberty to file her objections.
The SIT filed a closure report in 2012 stating that it found ‘no evidence against the accused.’
In 2013, Ms. Jafri filed a petition opposing the closure report.
The Magistrate upheld the SIT’s closure report and dismissed the petition filed by Jafri. Aggrieved, the petitioner had approached the Gujarat High Court which in 2017, upheld the Magistrate’s decision and dismissed the petition filed by Jafri.
Ms. Jafri then approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision.
On Friday, the Supreme Court held that Ms. Jafri’s appeal was ‘devoid of merits and deserves to be dismissed.’
The apex court said that there was no evidence to suggest ‘larger criminal conspiracy’ on the part of the State which led to Gujarat riots of 2002, after the Godhra train massacre.
‘Suffice it to observe that there is no tittle of material, much less tangible material to support the plea of the appellant that the Godhra incident unfolded on February 27, 2002 and the events which followed, was a pre-planned event owing to the criminal conspiracy hatched at the highest level in the State,’ the Court said.
The Court said that there was ‘a coalesced effort by the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat to create sensation by making revelations that were false to their own knowledge.’
The Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar also appreciated the SIT members for the ‘indefatigable work done,’ and having ‘come out with flying colours unscathed.’
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