Gulbarg Society case: SC grants relief for Modi by referring case back to lower magistrate's court

New Delhi, Sep. 12 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday referred the case against Gujarat Chief MInister Narendra Modi in the Gulbarg Society massacre back to the court of the district magistrate.

Giving its verdict on a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, the widow of former Congress lawmaker Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the Gulbarg massacre nine years ago, the apex court said that it was for the lower court to take a call on the evidence presented in the Specia Investigation Team's (SIT) report.

"We are monitoring the case," the apex court said.

A special three-judge bench comprising Justices D K Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam passed the direction on the basis of a confidential report submitted by amicus curaie on the investigation carried out by SIT which had reportedly given clean a chit to Modi.

The SIT had placed its report before the court on April 25 in compliance to the March 15 order of the bench which had asked the SIT to further probe the complaint filed by Ehsan Jafri's wife Jakia Ahsan alleging Modi, top politicians, bureaucrats and police officers had engineered the post-Godhra riots in which her husband was also burnt alive by mobs in Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad.

Jafri, however, said that she was disappointed by the Supreme Court's ruling, as she has been waiting for justice for nine years. She said that she had pinned her hopes on the apex court ruling in her favour.

A lawyer representing Modi described the ruling as a victory of truth and a lesson and a message to vested interests and social groups not to pursue hidden agendas to unseat Modi and the BJP-led government in Gujarat. He also said that he would be the first speaker at a reference hearing in the court at 11 a.m.

As many as 37 persons were killed in Gulbarg by a rampaging mob which set the neighbourhood on fire on February 28, 2002.

What differentiates this massacre from others is that Jafri himself had frantically called up politicians to rescue him and others who had taken shelter in his house. But help never came even though police officials were in the area. (ANI)