Zakia not to get copy of SIT report

An Ahmedabad court hearing the pleas of 2002 Gujarat riot victim Zakiya Jafri on Wednesday rejected her plea to get a copy of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) report on the Gulbarg Housing Society massacre in which her husband and Congress leader Ehsan Jafri was burnt to death.

The SIT was directed by the court to submit all the important documents before it by Mar 15.

The trial court will take a decision on Feb 29 that whether the lawyers of Jafri and other NGOs could see the SIT report or not.

Earlier on Wednesday reports said that the court had ruled that Zakiya will get a copy of the the SIT report.

The Metropolitan Magistrate court however rejected similar pleas of others like social activists like Teesta Setalvad and Mukul Sinha.

The court on Monday last had reserved its order after hearing the petition filed by 2002 Gujarat riots victim Zakiya Jafri, seeking details of the closure report filed by the SIT report on the Gulbarg Society massacre.

Petitions filed by activists Teesta Setalvad and Mukul Sinha seeking copies of the report filed in a sealed envelope were also heard and now the court rejected their pleas.

The SIT has strongly opposed sharing the report with Setalvad´s group.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Supreme court to probe the 2002 Gujarat riots cases has found no "prosecutable evidence" against Chief Minister Narendra Modi, media reports earlier said, though the report is yet to be made public.

Zakiya Jafri, wife of Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri killed in the riots, wants to know if the SIT report had complied to the Supreme Court order.

The final report, in connection with the complaint filed against Modi by Zakiya Jafri can bring respite to the Chief Minister and 60 others in the long-dragged case, if media reports on its otherwise unpublished contents are any indication.

The SIT has also said that it has found no substantial evidence to back suspended police officer Sanjiv Bhatt´s claims that Modi had ordered rioters to be given a free hand.

Refusing to take a position on the merits of the case, the Supreme Court had last year instead directed the SIT to submit a final report to a trial court that it said should study the evidence and charges against Modi.

Ehsan Jafri was set on fire during the riots.

The infamous Gujarat riots of 2002 left hundreds of Muslims dead, injured and tortured and came as a blot in the BJP rule in the state.

The riots followed an incident of train burning in Godhra in which Hindus returning from Ayodhya were killed by a Muslim mob.

In a major relief to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Gujarat High Court on Feb 1 had rejected a plea filed by an NGO to make chief minister Narendra Modi depose before the Nanavati Commission probing the 2002 riots.

The court said it is the discretion of the Commission to summon Modi or not.