Court did injustice to me, will approach HC: Zakia on Gulberg verdict

Zakia Jafri, wife of former Congress member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri who was among the 69 killed in Gulberg society massacre, expressed dissatisfaction over the verdict in the case on Friday, saying the court did ‘injustice’ to her.

She also said that she will approach the high court against the verdict of the special Special Investigation Team court which on Friday sentenced 11 convicts to life imprisonment in the case.

Zakia is particularly unhappy with the seven-year jail term awarded to 12 convicts and 10-year sentence to one other convict, who were held guilty for lesser offences not including murder. She is also miffed with the acquittal of 36 others in the case.

“I don't understand why 11 were given life imprisonment and some are given just seven or ten years of imprisonment. Why this selective approach as they all were part of a violent mob which killed people inside the society. This is wrong justice. The court did injustice to me,” Zakia said while talking to reporters.

“I was there in the society when the violent mob brutally killed my husband (Ehsan Jafri). He was an MP, yet he was hacked to death and burnt alive in the middle of road. Today’s verdict is not sufficient for such crime. I wished that court had given lifer to all of them who were involved in the crime,” she said.

According to her, those who were acquitted were also guilty and should be punished.

“My fight for justice will continue. Why these 36 were acquitted? Did they save any resident of the society? They were also part of the mob. I am not at all satisfied with today’s verdict. I will approach the high court against it,” Zakia said.

A special SIT court in Ahmedabad on Friday sentenced 11 convicts to life imprisonment in the case of burning alive of 69 people, including former Congress MP Eshan Jafri, in the 2002 post-Godhra violence.

The court awarded 10-year jail term to one of the 13 convicted for lesser offences while 12 others have been given seven-year sentence each.

However, Zakia’s son Tanveer Jafri said there was definitely ‘some sense of closure’ at the convictions but it would have to be seen why some of the accused were not convicted.

“We will definitely contest in the high court some of the acquittals,” he said.

Former SIT chief R K Raghavan who had probed the incident, welcomed the judgement.