Court reserves order on Zakia Jafri plea

The Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate court has reserved order on Zakia Jafri's plea that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) report on the 2002 Gulbarg Society massacre case be made public. Gulbarg case: Plea expressing doubt over SIT report filed | What Modi told SIT

The Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate court has reserved order on Zakia Jafri's plea that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) report on the 2002 Gulbarg Society massacre case be made public.

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On Wednesday, magistrate SM Bhatt heard arguments on behalf of Jafri - wife of former parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the massacre - and the SIT before reserving the order for March 3.

The SIT had submitted a sealed report on Jafri's complaint alleging complicity of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, other politicians, police officers and bureaucrats in the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

Jafri's lawyer contended that the since the report was already submitted to the court, it was a public document. He also stressed that since the SIT probe was ordered after Jafri's complaint, it should be opened and read out in court.

However, SIT lawyer RS Jamwar opposed opening of the report saying it had not submitted a complete report. The magisterial court, on February 15, had asked the SIT to submit its entire report including the investigation papers, witness statements and other relevant documents by March 15.

The SIT lawyer also said the legal grounds on which Zakia was seeking access to the report were not applicable, as the SIT had conducted the investigation upon a complaint, and not an FIR.