Modi keeps riots panel waiting

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi decided not to appear before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2002 Gujarat communal riots on Sunday. HT reports.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi decided not to appear before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2002 Gujarat communal riots on Sunday.

HT Image

The SIT, probing Modi’s role and that of 62 others, including some of his cabinet colleagues, in the massacre of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri and 68 others in the Gulbarg Society residential complex in Ahmedabad, had asked Modi to appear before it within a week beginning Sunday.

The SIT is conducting the probe on the basis of a petition filed in the Supreme Court by Jafri’s widow, Zakia Jafri.

“Nothing is going to happen today and nothing is going to happen in the next few days,” said an official of the CM’s office without wanting to be named.

Amid speculation that Modi is exploring all options before him, legal experts said he is not bound to present himself before the investigative team.

"The SIT has not issued a summons based on legal grounds but a simple notice. There is no need for Modi to appear or even respond to a notice that has no statutory sanction,” Mukul Sinha, senior advocate in the Gujarat High Court, told Hindustan Times.