Friday, March 12, 2010

Gulbarg massacre: SIT summons Narendra Modi


BUT WILL THE JUSTICE BE MADE
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Modi has been asked to present himself before the SIT on March 21. The questioning will be on the basis of the FIR filed by Zakia Jafri, Ahsan's widow, who has accused Modi and 62 others, including ministers, bureaucrats and police officers, of complicity in the Gujarat riots that killed nearly 2,000 persons.

If Modi responds, this will be his first statement on record in the post-Godhra riot case in the past eight years.

Narendra Modi
The timing of his summoning has raised a few eyebrows because it comes at a time when the SIT's credibility has been called into question by none other that the special public prosecutor.

Accused among the police officers is one of SIT's own members and now Surat city police commissioner, Shivanand Jha. Jha's statement was recently recorded in the case.

The development also comes at a time when SIT chief R K Raghavan is to file a report on March 15, updating the SC about the investigations in the Jafri case. Raghavan was quoted saying that Modi's questioning will be like that of any common person. To TOI, he merely said, "We have called Mr Modi on March 21 to record his statement on the Jafri case." Asked whether the SIT had any evidence against Modi, he said, "I cannot comment on that."

He also refused to comment on the allegations made by special public prosecutor R K Shah in his resignation letter addressed to him.

Ahmedabad: The Gulbarg massacre trial is already going through a crisis with special public prosecutor R K Shah and his assistant Nayana Bhatt resigning from the case levelling serious charges against the SIT.

Witnesses in the Gulbarg massacre trial, like Imtiyaz Pathan and Saira Sandhi, have told the riot court that they had heard Ahsan Jafri calling up Modi for help when mobs had surrounded Gulbarg society, and that Modi had allegedly abused the ex-MP on phone.

Zakia Jafri had filed the FIR in 2006, charging the Modi government of aiding and abetting the accused in the carnage that shook Gujarat between February 2002 and May, 2002.

Her FIR says, "Top-level meetings were held between the chief minister, some of his cabinet and top-level bureaucrats in which illegal instructions were issued and policemen and bureaucrats were instructed to, in fact, perform illegal acts."

Politicians already questioned in this case are former CM Suresh Mehta, former ministers I K Jadeja and Gordhan Zadaphia.
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