Ahmedabad, December 26
A metropolitan court today rejected a protest petition filed by Congress former MP’s wife Zakia Jafri against clean chit given to Narendra Modi and others by the Special Investigation Team in a 2002 Gujarat riots case.

Metropolitan Magistrate BJ Ganatra told Zakia’s counsel Mihir Desai that her petition had been rejected; and that she had the liberty to approach a higher court.

Zakia, whose husband Ehsan Jafri was among 68 persons killed in the Gulbarg society massacre during the post-Godhra riots, had filed a protest petition on April 15 objecting to the Supreme Court-appointed SIT’s closure report absolving Modi of complicity in the conspiracy behind the carnage.

Zakia (74), who was present in the court, broke down after the verdict and said she would appeal against it in the higher court in a month.

“The only hurdle in the acceptance of SIT’s recommendations was the protest petition. The protest petition was rejected, obviously the SIT report has been accepted. So, SIT’s investigation, integrity and impartiality have all been given a judicial stamp,” SIT counsel RS Jamuar told mediapersons after the verdict.

After completing its investigation on Zakia’s complaint, the SIT had had filed its closure report on February 8 last year.

It concluded that despite difficulties in obtaining evidence in the case because of the lapse of eight years, whatever material it could gather was not sufficient enough to prosecute those against whom allegations of hatching the conspiracy had been levelled.

Zakia had filed a complaint against 63 persons, including Modi, his ministerial colleagues, top police officers and BJP functionaries, accusing them of a wider conspiracy in the riots that left more than 1,000 people dead, mostly Muslims. Jamuar said the complainant had the option to move the court of the district judge or the High Court against the order.

The apex court had ordered an inquiry into Zakia’s complaint by SIT headed by CBI former Director RK Raghavan. The SIT had submitted its report to the Supreme Court after investigations into the complaint. It had interrogated several people, including Modi, who was quizzed for more than nine hours in March 2010.

The Supreme Court, after going through the report, had asked amicus curiae Raju Ramchandran to independently verify the SIT probes.