Ahmedabad, July18: A day after a victim of the post- Godhra communal violence alleged presence of former Gujarat minister Haren Pandya in the rioting mob, the BJP leader's father Vitthalbhai today charged Chief Minister Narendra Modi of tarnishing his deceased son's image for political reasons. "It is a politically motivated move by Modi to send such people to tarnish the image of my son", Vitthalbhai said in a written statement to the two-man Godhra riots probe commission here today. Dr Yunus Bhavanagri, a victim of last year's communal riots in Paldi area, yesterday claimed before the commission that Pandya's presence had encouraged the rampaging mob outside his house.

"As it was my birthday on the day of incident (February 28), my son was with me and no sooner did he receive a call about sparking of communal riots, he went to pacify the mob and not to instigate it", the deceased leader's father added.


Vitthalbhai, who has been persistenly critical of Modi ever since Pndya's killing on march 26, also demanded the recording of M,odi's statement by the commission.


Meanwhile, state counsel Arvind Pandya said that Bhavnagar's statements were "totally fabricated" as he had not mentioned Pandya's name in his previous complaints.
Bureau Report