Zeenews Bureau
Ahmedabad: In a crucial first, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been summoned for enquiry by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2002 riots.
RK Raghavan, the chief of the SIT, confirmed that a summon had been sent to the CM, asking him to appear before it on March 21. He has been summoned in the case of Gulburg Society where Ehsan Jaffrey, a former Congress Member of Parliament, was killed on February 28, 2002.
The SIT was asked by the Supreme Court to enquire into the 2002 Gujarat communal violence. The petition was filed by the widow of Jaffrey, Zakia Jaffrey who had filed a 100-page complaint alleging conspiracy against Modi and 62 others, including his Cabinet colleagues.
The move to question Modi follows an order by the Supreme Court on April 27, 2009, on a petition of Zakia and advocate-activist Teesta Setalvad pertaining to a wider conspiracy surrounding the 2002 communal riots.
That petition had named Modi, who was chief minister when widespread violence directed at the Muslim community broke out in February 2002 after the burning of a train at Godhra that left 59 Hindus dead.
Welcoming the move, Zakia said she wanted the case to be over now and justice delivered. Her son, Tanveer said this was an important step and now an FIR should be filed against the CM. He added that they had petitioned SIT only after enough evidence pointing to a conspiracy was collected.
"This also shows that evidence collected by the SIT
points towards some role of Modi, his Cabinet ministers and
government officials during the riots of 2002," he added.
"I have not slept properly ever since the incident. Now
he (Modi) will also have sleepless nights," she said, adding
"I do not know what will happen afterwards, but I welcome the
move," Zakia said.
Raghavan, a former CBI chief, said they had questioned many witnesses, collected a lot of evidence and now wanted to hear Modi on the matter. His cabinet colleagues have already been questioned.
Raghavan said the summon has been issued only in
connection with Jaffrey's murder, who was reportedly burnt alive.
Modi’s testimony may be the final step in the probe and the SIT could submit its report to the Supreme Court after he is questioned, Raghavan added.
This will be for the first time that the CM will be questioned for his role in the riots that allegedly killed 2000, mostly Muslims. The SIT has to submit its report to the apex court by April 30.
The SIT summons led the Congress to demand that Modi should step down as the CM.
Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said: "What has happened today should have actually happened many, many years ago. A chief minister of Gujarat and his government presided over the worst massacre of minorities that independent India has witnessed in the last 62 yuears.
"It is perhaps for the first time that a sitting Chief Minister has been summoned to appear before a SIT on mass murder. It would be appropriate that he should step down before appearing before the SIT."
But Tiwari quickly added that "it would be too much to expect" from Modi to do so.
Rights activists and Modi critics have consistently argued that the violence could not have gone on the way it did in Gujarat in 2002, but for a tacit green signal from the highest in the administration.
-Agencies' inputs
First Published: Friday, March 12, 2010, 00:45