NEW DELHI: Zakia Jafri, a survivor of the 2002 anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat, who fought legal cases to ensure accountability for the riots in various courts, has passed away, activist Teesta Setalvad wrote in a post on social media on Saturday.
Zakia Jafri was 86.
She was the wife of Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri, who was killed by a Hindutva mob with 68 others in an attack on the Gulberg housing society – a lower-middle-class Muslim neighbourhood in Ahmedabad.
“Zakia Appa, a compassionate leader of human rights community passed away just 30 minutes ago! Her visionary presence will be missed by [the] nation, family, friends and [the] world!” Setalvad posted on X.
With Setalvad as co-petitioner, Jafri had petitioned several courts from the ground up seeking investigations into then chief minister Narendra Modi and other government representatives’ roles in the riots. In 2008, on a petition filed by Jafri, the Supreme Court ordered re-investigation in nine cases, including the Gulberg Society incident.
In the later years, Jafri petitioned against a clean chit given by the special investigation team to 63 people, including Modi, at the magistrate court, the Gujarat high court and the Supreme Court. All three courts rejected her pleas.
The Supreme Court, while dismissing her plea in 2022, also made remarks that were severely criticised — including by a former Supreme Court judge, Justice Madan Lokur — as they paved the way for Gujarat Police to register a fresh case against Setalvad, arrest her, and jail her for 70 days.
“We find force in the argument of the respondent-State that the testimony of Mr Sanjiv Bhatt, Mr Haren Pandya and also of Mr R. B. Sreekumar was only to sensationalise and politicise the matters in issue, although, replete with falsehood,” the Supreme Court said, dismissing the final appeal by Zakia Jafri.
