Delhi- The Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by Zakia Ehsan Jafri challenging the closure report filed by Special Investigation Team discarding the allegations of larger conspiracy by high state functionaries including the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the Gujarat riots of 2002 that ensued the Godhra train massacre.
Former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was among 68 killed at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad at the time of the Gujarat Riots, 2002 a day after the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra. Zakia Jafri’s plea also said the Gujarat high court “failed to appreciate”. The high court, in its October 2017 order, had said the SIT probe was monitored by the Supreme Court.
It partly allowed Jafri’s petition as far as its demand for a further investigation was concerned. And the petitioner had approached an appropriate forum, including the magistrate’s court, a division bench of the high court, or the Supreme Court seeking further investigation.
Gujarat riot emerged as a riot of Hindu-Muslim which is not common in India but Gujarat violence plumbed new depths of horror. In February 2002, Sabarmati Express pulled at the train station of Godhra, a small town in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. At that time Gujarat was ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sabarmati Express was carrying Karsevaks from Ayodhya, they all had gone to express their support for building a Ram Temple which was a legally and politically disputed site.
Apparently, an argument took place between Hindu activists and some Muslim boys in the train station. The noisy argument turned into a vast fight between the two religions on the topic of Ram mandir. The moment the train stopped and a mob attacked, where the two carriages of the train were burned, and the fire killed a number of passengers.
A retaliatory bloodbath in many parts of the state and a number of people killed each other. Mobs torched each other’s homes and the fight has taken a devastating step. Instead of isolating those criminals who attacked the train and punishing them legally, the fight has turned into revenge.
Though Hindu-Muslim riots are not common in India the Gujarat riots plumbed a new depth of horrors and brutality.
