DHAKA: An Indian court on Thursday rejected a petition seeking the prosecution of a 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.

Magistrate BJ Ganatara’s ruling comes as a boost to Narendra Modi, the state’s top elected official and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate in national elections to be held before May.

Former Congress party lawmaker Ehsan Jafri was allegedly killed by Hindu rioters in a neighbourhood where dozens of Muslim families lived in Ahmadabad, Gujarat’s largest city.

Dozens of other Muslims also died in the neighbourhood attack.

In her petition to the court, Jafri’s widow, Zakia Jafri, accused Modi of not doing enough to prevent the killings.

Modi denies the charge, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1945 HRS, DEC 26, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor