The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the wife of a Congress MP killed in the riots’ plea against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s exoneration in a case involving the 2002 Gujarat riots is “devoid of merits.”
The highest court rejected the plea brought by Zakia Jafri, the wife of Ehsan Jafri, one of the 68 people slain in what became known as the Gulbarg Society massacre, upholding the clearance given to the then chief minister of the state by a Special Investigation Team.
The incident was among the bloodiest of the riots that broke out after 59 people were killed when a train transporting pilgrims was burned in Godhra a day earlier.
Hearing Jafri’s appeal against the Gujarat High Court order upholding the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate Court’s choice to accept the SIT’s closure report, which gave the then-chief minister of Gujarat and 63 other individuals a clean bill of health in riot-related cases, was a bench led by Justice A M Khanwilkar and also including Justices Dinesh Maheswhwari and C T Ravikumar.
