Published: Sunday, 9 July, 2006, 10:37 AM Doha Time
AHMEDABAD:
The widow of former MP Ehsan Jaffrey, who was killed in Gujarat’s
sectarian riots of 2002, filed a police complaint yesterday against
Chief Minister Narendra Modi, other ministers and senior officials. In
a 100-page-long complaint sent by post to the Gandhinagar police, Zakia
Jaffrey demanded action against 63 people, including Modi, on charges
of conspiracy and ordering subordinates not to perform their duty when
mobs set out to burn and kill during the post-Godhra violence. Thirty-eight
Muslims were killed, including Ehsan Jaffrey, when a mob attacked the
Gulberg Society building in the Chamanpura neighbourhood here March 31. Zakia
Jaffrey has also sought that a complaint be registered under section
154 of Criminal Procedure Code against Modi, other ministers and some
police officials on the basis of the facts that have come to light in
wake of depositions by different police officials. Jaffrey’s
family had shifted to Surat following the riots in the city. The
complaint has been posted from Surat and copies were also sent to the
director general of police, home secretary and chief secretary of the
state. Ehsan Jaffrey, a former Congress MP, pleaded to the police
over telephone to rescue him and other inmates of Gulberg Society from
a mob that had ringed the houses but the authorities turned a deaf ear.
Eventually, 38 Muslims were burnt to death. The police had registered a complaint in the case in 2002 and the case is pending before the Supreme Court. At
least 1,000 people died in riots after a coach of the Sabarmati Express
train was set on fire in Godhra, killing 59 passengers, on February 27,
2002. – Indo-Asian News Service
