Gujarat Ministers accuse Zakia Jafri of making false charges

March 06, 2014 12:12 pm | Updated December 04, 2021 11:26 pm IST - Ahmedabad

Zakia Jafri listens to her son Tanveer Jafri, son of former Congress lawmaker Ehsan Jafri, after a court ruling rejecting a petition seeking the prosecution of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi in Ahmadabad, India, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013. The Indian court on Thursday rejected the petition against the Hindu nationalist party's prime ministerial candidate in the killing of a former lawmaker and other Muslims during riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002. In her petition to the court, Zakia Jafri accused Modi of not doing enough to prevent the killings. Modi denies the charge. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Zakia Jafri listens to her son Tanveer Jafri, son of former Congress lawmaker Ehsan Jafri, after a court ruling rejecting a petition seeking the prosecution of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi in Ahmadabad, India, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013. The Indian court on Thursday rejected the petition against the Hindu nationalist party's prime ministerial candidate in the killing of a former lawmaker and other Muslims during riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002. In her petition to the court, Zakia Jafri accused Modi of not doing enough to prevent the killings. Modi denies the charge. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Zakia Jafri, wife of Congress leader Ahsan Jafri killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots, who had waged a court battle seeking justice for her husband and accused Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others of instigating anti-Muslim attacks, is now facing charges of making false allegations.

Joint Commissioner of Police A.K. Sharma and former Bharatiya Janata Party legislator and minister from North Gujarat’s Mehsana district Anil Patel have disputed Zakia Jafri’s claim in a metropolitan court of dereliction of duty claiming they were not in Ahmedabad during the riots.

Mr. Sharma claimed in his petition that he was posted in Rajkot during 2002 and the Saurashtra city faced no riots then, but he had been charged with dereliction of duty as Superintendent of Police in Mehsana district (North Gujarat) in a riot where four persons had lost their lives.

Similarly, Anil Patel, former Industries and Tourism Minister, told the court that he was not even a minister during the riots. And this was why the allegations against him were false and mischievous.

When contacted, Teesta Setalvad, a joint complainant in Zakia Jafri’s original petition challenging a Special Investigation Team (SIT) report giving a clean chit to Narendra Modi, told The Hindu that these petitions are “basically a proxy war” by Gujarat Government to ward off all charges of its complicity in the riots.

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