Ahmedabad:
Zakia Jafri, whose husband Ehsan Jafri was burnt alive during the 2002 riots in Gujarat, will find out today if her case against chief minister Narendra Modi, now the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, and 59 others stands closed. Mrs Jafri has alleged that Mr Modi colluded with senior ministers, bureaucrats and the police to fan the communal violence that tore through the state.
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Mrs Jafri's allegations were investigated by a Special Investigating Team or SIT appointed by the Supreme Court in March 2008. (Narendra Modi can be prosecuted: Report by Raju Ramachandran)
After four years, the SIT said in February 2012 that there was no prosecutable evidence against Mr Modi and the others and filed a closure report indicating its inquiry has ended. ('SIT report ignored testimony against Narendra Modi,' says retired judge who probed 2002 riots)
Mrs Jafri has contested that decision. A court in Ahmedabad will rule on her petition today. (Zakia Jafri's plea against clean chit to Modi 'a piece of fiction': SIT counsel)
Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress MP, was among the 68 people of Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad, killed by a mob on February 28, 2002. Mr Jafri's frantic phone calls for help to the police and politicians were allegedly ignored.
Mr Modi was interrogated in 2010 by the SIT for over nine hours. (Timeline of Zakia Jafri's case against Narendra Modi)
In 2011, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case and said it would be handled by an Ahmedabad court. (Narendra Modi tweets 'God is great', Supreme Court won't monitor Gulbarg Society case)
In April 2011, Sanjiv Bhatt, who was a senior police officer in 2002, said that at a meeting, Mr Modi told him and other cops to allow Hindus in the state to exact revenge for the killing of 59 karsevaks on the Sabarmati Express near Godhra.
But the SIT concluded that Sanjiv Bhatt's testimony was not reliable because he was nursing a grudge against the government as he was sidelined by the Modi administration.
The SIT also alleged that the petition was a motivated one and was filed at the instance of activist Teesta Setalvad.
Today's verdict comes just as the BJP has decided to launch an aggressive "Modi-for-PM" campaign ahead of next year's national election.
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