SC gets report on Modi's 'role' in riots

The Special Investigation Team investigating the alleged role of chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots, submitted its final report in the Supreme Court on Monday.

The Special Investigation Team investigating the alleged role of chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots, submitted its final report in the Supreme Court on Monday.

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The court had asked the team, headed by former CBI director Dr RK Raghavan, to examine a complaint by Zakia Jaffri, the wife of MP Ehsan Jaffri who was killed with 68 others in the Gulberg society massacre on February 28, 2002.

In her complaint, Jaffri had held Modi and 61 others responsible for conspiring and abetting the riots against minorities that claimed 1,200 lives following the fire in Sabarmati Express in Godhra.

The final hearing on the case is on April 27.

The report -- contained in a sealed cover and submitted by Raghavan -- contains the SIT’s findings on whether Modi had actually ordered police officers to take no action against the rioters, said sources.

In March 2010, Modi had been questioned for nine hours by SIT member AK Malhotra. The questions had covered his alleged complicity in the riots, venomous speeches delivered across the state in June, July and August 2002 and the actions of his government to contain the riots, which had engulfed the state since February. In May, the SIT had submitted its report, including the interrogation report of Modi, to the court in a sealed cover.

Raghavan, meanwhile, refused to comment on the allegations by Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court on April 14.

Bhatt had claimed that he was present in the meeting held by Modi at his home on February 27, 2002. He had claimed that in the meeting, the chief minister had told officials that the Hindus be allowed to vent their anger against Muslims, so the Godhra incident never be repeated.