Gujarat riots case: Court defers Zakia Jafri's plea for copy of SIT report that clears Modi

Ahmedabad, Feb.15 (ANI): A trial court here has deferred Zakia Jafri's plea to get a copy of the Special Investigation Team's (SIT) report on the post-Godhra riots that allegedly clears Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of any wrong doing in the 2002 Gulbarg Society massacre case.

It has also given the SIT a month to furnish all documents on which it has based its final report, and said only after the final report is submitted, would it consider petitions for copies of report.

The SIT has till March 15 to submit the complete set of papers.

The court said that it will hear a fresh petition filed by Zakia Jafri's counsel on February 29 that he be allowed to at least read the report, which the SIT had submitted in sealed cover to the trial court as directed by the Supreme Court.

The SIT had on Monday said that it was up to the court to decide whether Zakia Jafri should be given a copy of the report, but had refused to give a copy to social activists like Teesta Seetalvad and Mukul Sinha, who it said were not the complainants.

The petitioners had argued that after submission in the court, the report is now a public document.

The court today rejected the petitions of Setalvad and Sinha that they be given copies of the report.

The SIT was appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate post-Godhra riot cases in Gujarat in 2002.

Zakia Jafri's compliant is one of those. She has accused Modi and 62 others of complicity in the 2002 riots.

Zakia Jafri is the wife of former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri, who was among 69 people allegedly burnt alive by a rioting mob on February 28, 2002 at the Gulbarg Housing Society in Ahmedabad where the Jafris lived.

Ms Jafri alleges that when the mob attacked, her husband made frantic calls to the police and even to the chief minister's office for help but to no avail. (ANI)