The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, wife of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials and 63 others including politicians in connection with the 2002 Gujarat clashes. The three-member bench said the appeal was without merit and upheld the decisions of the Metropolitan Magistrate and later the High Court to allow the Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court or Prime Minister Modi and others to accept the SIT’s clean sheet.

The bench said those involved in the abuse of such processes should be in jail and face the law

On February 27, 2002, 58 people were killed when a coach of the Sabarmati Express carrying Karsevaks returning from Ayodhya was set on fire in Godhra, Gujarat. This led to massive communal clashes across the state, forcing the central government to send troops

According to official figures, this was one of the most hair-raising communal violence in India’s history, killing 1,044 people, including 790 Muslims, 254 Hindus. There were also reports of rape, looting, destruction of property, and burning of houses and shops. About 200,000 people were displaced Many of them could not return to their homes They were homeless

A day after the Sabarmati Express burnt down, mobs attacked Gulbarga Society, a housing complex in Ahmedabad, killing 69 people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri. The Gulberg Society was a group of bungalows and apartment buildings where mostly Muslims lived. Naroda Patia and Best Bakery were two other places where mass killings took place. In 2006, Zakia Jafri urged the Gujarat police to file a complaint against some officials and politicians, including Modi, who was the chief minister of the state at the time. She alleged that the state government did not do enough to prevent the clashes and save the lives of people, including her husband.

 In 2008, the Supreme Court appointed the SIT to submit a report on the conflict trial and investigate Jafri’s allegations. He was appointed.

In 2012, the SIT gave Modi and others a clean sheet saying there was no prosecutable evidence and submitted its seizure report to the magistrate. In 2013, Jafri filed a petition opposing the closure report. The magistrate upheld the SIT’s closed envelop report and dismissed his plea.

He then appealed to the Gujarat High Court which in 2017 upheld the magistrate’s decision.

In 2014, Modi became Prime Minister. In 2018, Jafri and activist Teesta Setalvad had approached the Supreme Court saying the SIT had not examined all available materials, there was bias in its probe and the investigators themselves should face scrutiny.

During the hearing, the state of Gujarat denied the allegations and said that Setalvad, who himself had embezzled funds donated for the welfare of the conflict victims

Counsel for Jafri and Setalvad, Kapil Sibal, argued that the allegations against Modi were based on Sanjeev Bhat, a former Gujarat police officer, who claimed to have attended an important government meeting. The SIT decided that Bhatt was not present in the meeting and therefore, there was no other way to confirm the allegations. And after the magistrates and the High Court, the Supreme Court has upheld the clean sheet of the SIT.

The original piece may be read here