Gujarat court asks Zakia Jafri to file protest petition by Nov 7

Ahmedabad: A local court on Tuesday granted more time to Zakia Jafri to file a protest petition challenging the Closure Report of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) which gave a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi among others in the 2002 riot cases. The court of metropolitan magistrate BJ Ganatra on Tuesday directed Zakia to either inform the court about the status of the Special Leave Petition (SLP) she had filed in the Supreme Court or file a protest petition by November 7.

Zakia, wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Zafri who was killed by a mob in Gulburg Society during 2002 riots, had sought more time to file the protest petition on the ground that her plea seeking clarification on certain issues has been pending with the Supreme Court. The local court in its previous hearing on October 25 had reserved the order on Zakia's petition.

Zakia's counsel SM Vora had earlier argued that "past three orders of this court gave impression that our complaint was restricted only to the Gulberg Society massacre case whereas in fact we had complained about the role of the Chief Minister and others in the statewide riots." "This had prompted us to move Supreme Court to seek clarification that its order on Zakia's case (ordering probe by SIT) was not only limited to Gulberg Society," he had said.

The local court in its previous hearing on October 25 had reserved the order on Zakia\'s petition.

The SIT had opposed Zakia's plea on the ground that even though she had filed a petition, the apex court has not yet given any stay order on proceedings of this court. The probe agency argued that Zakia should be directed to file her protest petition as soon as possible and not be granted additional time.

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