New Delhi: The Gujarat High Court on Thursday rejected the plea of Zakia Jafri for investigation into the Gujarat riots of 2002 and also action against then-chief minister Narendra Modi and others for a larger conspiracy in the riots.
Rejecting the petition filed by Jafri and activist Teesta Setalvad’s NGO Citizen for Justice and Peace, the high court ruled that there was “not a larger conspiracy” in the riots.
The court, however, allowed Jafri to challenge the lower court’s decision, which said that it had no power to direct the SIT to probe the case further.
Jafri had challenged a lower court order that upheld the clean chit given to Modi and other politicians and bureaucrats by the SC-appointed special investigation team (SIT).
Zakia’s husband, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre.
The petition also sought the high court’s direction for fresh investigation into the matter.
The SIT submitted before the high court that its probe was conducted “under the Supreme Court’s watchful eye,” and that its report was largely accepted by all.
The SIT’s closure report, filed on February 8, 2012, had given a clean chit to Modi and others.