Week after SC order, Zakia gets SIT report

A week after the Supreme Court order, Zakia Jafri — the wife of slain ex-Congress MP Ehsan Jafri — was on Wednesday given a copy of the preliminary report of the SIT, which probed her complaint against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others and gave a clean chit to them in the 2002 riots.

The report was prepared by SIT member A K Malhotra.

Following the apex court order, the SIT also submitted two reports of Himanshu Shukla — investigating officer in the case — to a court here. Copies of these reports were handed over to lawyers of Zakia by metropolitan magistrate B J Ganatra.

While submitting the three reports, the SIT requested the court to restrain Zakia and her lawyers from using these materials "elsewhere".

"Necessary orders may please be passed by this court directing complainant (Zakia) and her counsels to restrict the use of the reports only in these proceedings and nowhere else as the same may affect impartial and just decision in the matter," special public prosecutor R S Jamuar said, citing the apex court order.

After receiving the three reports, advocate S M Vora, who appeared for Zakia, requested the court to grant time to verify whether material supplied to them were in conformity with the SC order or not.

The magistrate, while accepting Vora's plea, fixed February 18 as the next date of hearing.

Following submission of the closure report, which absolved Modi and others of any complicity in the riots, Zakia had sought the preliminary report submitted by Malhotra on May 12, 2010 before the apex court in a sealed envelope.

The metropolitan court had turned down her request to obtain a copy of the report. During proceedings, the court had also rejected Zakia's plea to file a protest petition against the closure report on the grounds of delay.

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