Ehsan Jafri (1929 – 28 February 2002) was an Indian politician and former member of the
6th Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house in the Parliament of India. The 6th Lok Sabha, which ran from 23 March 1977 to 22 August 1979 was elected in February and March 1977. 11 sitting members from Rajya Sabha were elected to 6t ...
for the
Congress Party, who was killed in the
Gulbarg Society massacre
The Gulbarg Society massacre took place on 28 February 2002, during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when a crowd started stone pelting the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood in the eastern part of Chamanpura, Ahmedabad. Most of the houses were bu ...
.
A Special Investigating Team appointed by the
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
concluded that he was killed after he fired at an agitated Hindu mob outside his house. His widow Zakia Jafri has subsequently alleged that the state of Gujarat and its then-chief minister, now the current prime minister of India,
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
, was partly responsible for the violence and lack of police intervention in favor of the victims at Gulbarg Society. The argument was rejected by a Special Investigation Committee appointed by the Supreme Court in 2008.
A review petition was filed by her which gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi a clean chit. A three judge bench of The Supreme Court rejected her review petition, giving the reason that "the petition is devoid of any merit
Life
Ehsan Jafri was born in
Burhanpur
Burhanpur'' is a historical city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative seat of Burhanpur District. It is situated on the north bank of the Tapti River and northeast of city of Mumbai, southwest of the state's capi ...
, present day Madhya Pradesh in 1929, and his father was Dr. Allahbaksh Jafri. In 1935, Ehsan moved to Ahmedabad, studying at the
R.C. High School.
Subsequently, he was elected General Secretary of the Progressive Editor's Union. Around this time, he also completed his law degree and started practising as an attorney in Ahmedabad. His family had to suffer during
1969 Gujarat riots
The 1969 Gujarat riots involved communal violence between Hindus and Muslims during September–October 1969, in Gujarat, India. The violence was Gujarat's first major riot that involved massacre, arson, and looting on a large scale. It was the ...
too.
In the 1960s, he had joined the Congress Party of
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...
, and was heading the city unit by 1972. In 1977, after the
emergency
An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...
when the party was routed in most Indian states, Ehsan managed to win the Ahmedabad seat and became a parliamentarian in the
6th Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house in the Parliament of India. The 6th Lok Sabha, which ran from 23 March 1977 to 22 August 1979 was elected in February and March 1977. 11 sitting members from Rajya Sabha were elected to 6t ...
. Thereafter, he remained active in the party and held several key organizational posts in the Congress Party Administration in Gujarat.
Death
On 28 February 2002, when riots broke out in
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
, he was killed by a rampaging mob.
By early morning, a large mob gathered at the Gulberg Society in the Chamanpura suburb of Ahmedabad. This was an almost entirely Muslim housing society where the septuagenarian Ehsan Jafri lived. According to
First Information Report
__NOTOC__
A first information report (FIR) is a document prepared by police organisations in Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asian countries including Myanmar, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan when they receive information about the commissio ...
of the incident filed by police inspector K.G. Erda,
[FIR no. 4/5.200, filed at Meghani Nagar police station, quoted in book by Varadarajan, p. 140-141] the violent mob started attacking Muslim owned establishments in the morning and were dispersed by the police. However, they reassembled around 1
PM armed with swords, sticks, pipe and kerosene.
[
p.140-144]
The mob had blown up gas cylinders to blast through walls in the Gulbarg Society.
The report also mentions that the rioters were guided by voter lists and
computer printouts with the addresses of Muslim-owned properties, information
obtained from the local municipal
administration.
This claim was repeated by at least five Muslim witnesses presented before the
Nanavati-Mehta Commission
The Nanavati-Mehta Commission is the commission of inquiry appointed by the government of Gujarat to probe the Godhra train burning incident of 27 February 2002. Its mandate was later enlarged to include the investigation of the 2002 Gujarat rio ...
.
Gory details of how former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was hacked limb by limb at Gulbarg Society, then burnt, have been reported in Indian media exposés, in the words of those who did it.
Chamanpura is in central Ahmedabad and barely a kilometre from the police
station, and less than 2 km from the Police Commissioner's office.
Believing the area to be safe given Jafri's presence, many Muslims in the area had gathered in his compound.
Around 10:30 in the morning, the Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police, P.C. Pandey, personally visited Jafri and apparently assured him that police reinforcement would be coming. In the next five hours, Jafri and top Congress officials of the state repeatedly kept calling the police and other government officials requesting safe transport for the residents, but no help arrived.
[ The FIR by Erda][ further stated that the police station had 130 policemen on duty that day, and were well armed with teargas shells. However, no one was deployed to disperse the crowd, despite Ehsan Jafri and top Congress politicians repeatedly contacting the Director General of Police, Police Commissioner, the Mayor, Leader of Opposition in the State and the Parliament, and other top government officials.
]
Investigation of death
The Tehelka report elicited no response from the Gujarat police, and four months later, the Supreme Court appointed a high level investigative team, including the ex-chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governmen ...
to investigate eleven major unresolved cases arising from the riots, including this murder.
Gulbarg Society massacre
The Gulbarg Society massacre took place on 28 February 2002, during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when a crowd started stone pelting the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood in the eastern part of Chamanpura, Ahmedabad. Most of the houses were bu ...
trial restarted at a special court with Supreme Court monitored Special Investigation Team acting as prosecution. On 18 June 2016, Court convicted 24 persons: 11 for life, one for 10 years and the remaining 12 given seven years of rigorous imprisonment. The judgment termed the killings "unfortunate" and the "darkest day in the civil society of Gujarat", but reiterated that "it was the private firing by Ehsan Jafri that acted as a catalyst and which infuriated the mob to such an extent that the mob went out of control…". Though the survivors of the Gulbarg massacre say that Jafri fired his gun only in self-defense after the violent mob started attacking the complex.
In April 2012, a Special Investigation Team absolved the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
from killing of Ehsan Jafri Later a protest petition was filed by his wife Zakia Jafri seeking rejection of the said SIT report to local Metropolitan Magistrate B J Ganatra. SIT has strongly opposed this petition and said that "Modi has never said that go and kill people". Later the Supreme Court, through the Gujarat High Court
The Gujarat High Court is the High Court of the state of Gujarat. It was established on 1 May 1960 under the ''Bombay Re-organisation Act, 1960'' after the state of Gujarat split from Bombay State.
The seat of the court is Ahmedabad. The prese ...
, stayed the routine transfer of the metropolitan magistrate who was hearing the petition on the information of the amicus curiae
An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...
Harish Salve
Harish Salve ( Marathi : हरीश साळवे) KC is an Indian senior advocate who practices at the Supreme Court of India. He served as the Solicitor General of India from 1 November 1999 to 3 November 2002. He also fought the case o ...
that the routine transfer due to the end of his term may delay the case. However, in December 2013, metropolitan court rejected the petition. Zakia subsequently filed an appeal against it in the higher court. A three judge bench of The Supreme Court rejected her review petition, on 24th June 2022, giving the reason that "the petition is devoid of any merit
Personal life
Jafri's wife, Zakia Jafri, survived the carnage. His daughter, Nishrin Hussain, lives in Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
.
Ehsan Jafri had a lifelong interest in literature. While at school, he had brought out an Urdu magazine. He kept writing even during his years of Labour union struggle. In 1996, he published his volume of poetry titled ''Qandeel'' ("Lantern") in Urdu.[
]
References
External links
The Gulbarg Society massacre: What happened
at NDTV
New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jafri, Ehsan
1929 births
2002 deaths
People from Burhanpur
Indian Shia Muslims
Indian National Congress politicians from Gujarat
Lok Sabha members from Gujarat
India MPs 1977–1979
20th-century Indian lawyers
2002 Gujarat riots
People murdered in Gujarat
Assassinated Indian politicians
2002 murders in India
Indian National Congress (U) politicians
Indian murder victims