Agencies/Ahmedabad
An inquiry into the 2002 riots in Gujarat has found no evidence against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 57 others, a local court said yesterday. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was appointed by the Supreme Court following a complaint by Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress leader Ehsaan Jafri who was killed by a rioting mob, who had accused Modi and other senior government officers of being conspirators in the riots.More than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the riots, triggered by the killing of nearly 60 Hindu pilgrims travelling in a train that was torched by a mob. Some 31 Muslims were found guilty last year on murder and conspiracy charges for the train attack that sparked an anti-Muslim backlash. Hindu mobs hungry for revenge rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods in several cities across Gujarat during three days of bloodshed that witnessed some of India’s worst religious violence. Human rights organisations have accused the Gujarat government under Modi, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, of direct involvement in the riots. Modi has been head of the Gujarat government since 2001.Metropolitan magistrate M S Bhatt, who received the closure report of the Special Investigation Team in February, in his order said the investigators have found no evidence against any of the accused, including Modi, in the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre, one of the cases related to the widespread riots 10 years ago.Ehsaan Jafri, a former Congress MP, was among 69 people burnt alive by a rioting mob on February 28, 2002 at the Gulberg Housing Society in Ahmedabad. “No offence” has been established against any of the persons listed in Zakia’s complaint as per the SIT report, judge Bhatt said in his order. This is the first official confirmation about the SIT report on finding no proof against the chief minister. The court also asked the probe panel to give a copy of the report to Zakia Jafri within 30 days which is when the SIT report will become fully public.“As per the Supreme Court’s order and principle of natural justice the complainant has to be given copy of the report and related documents. Zakia will be given copies of the investigation report, statements of witnesses and all related documents within 30 days of this order,” said the court. Zakia Jafri was considering whether to appeal the SIT findings, her lawyers said. The court will then decide whether the case should be closed or not. “We had read media reports that Modi had been given a clean chit [by SIT]. But we have maintained that the SIT report is of no value until the judge decides on the case,” Jafri’s son, Tanvir Jafri told reporters. “Now we have to fight a long battle in court to prove our case that there is enough evidence to prosecute Modi and other senior officials,” he said. The BJP, which sees Modi as a possible prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 election, welcomed the finding. “It’s a big relief for us,” senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj tweeted. “Ten years of vilification campaign must stop,” she wrote. A day earlier, another court convicted 23 people over the massacre of nearly two dozen Muslims during the rioting. Another 23 people were acquitted by the special court for lack of evidence in the case, in which rioters in the small village of Ode bolted the doors of a house where Muslim families had taken refuge and then set it on fire. Of the 23 who died in what became known as the “Ode massacre”, 18 were women.