Ahmedabad: The local court of Metropolitan Magistrate BJ Ganatra found no merit in the protest petition filed by Zakia Jafri, the wife of late Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was killed during the 2002 riots, and upheld the clean chit given to Modi by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Thursday, December 26.

Moreover the court also observed that IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s statement cannot be relied upon.

SIT Chief  RK Raghavan welcomed the court order saying the investigations carried out by his team have been proved right. “We worked very hard in the investigations,” he added.

Reacting to the court order, SIT lawyer RS Jamuvar said that Zakia is now free to approach the higher court. While the SIT had said that it has found no evidence whatsoever, Zakia had argued that there is adequate evidence to prosecute Modi and others who include police officers, bureaucrats and political leaders.

According to Zakia’s protest petition, “Modi instructed top officials to allow Hindus to vent their anger on Muslims after the Godhra train burning incident. IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s affidavit supports this allegation which the court found to be dicey.

On the other hand Zakia has maintained her protest and is willing to fight till the end.