Gujarat riots: Panel probe reaches Modi’s office

Three officials of the Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office have been asked by the G.T. Nanavati Commission to submit details of telephone calls they made when the riots were on in the state in 2002, reports Prasad Nichenametla.

Three officials of the Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office have been asked by the G.T. Nanavati Commission to submit details of telephone calls they made when the riots were on in the state in 2002.

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The Commission, which is probing the riots, wanted to know from the three personal assistants (PAs) to the chief minister if they had spoken with Ashok Bhatt, the then health minister and now the assembly speaker; Gordhan Zadaphia, the then home minister; and Jaideep Patel, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, between February 27, 2002, and March 1, 2002 and the content of their discussion, if any.

The Commission was hearing a petition by the Jan Sangarsh Manch, a non-government organisation.

The three PAs — Om Prakash Singh, Tanmay Mehta and Sanjay Bhavsar — are among the seven that the JSM has listed for summoning.

The other four are Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Bhatt, Zadaphia, and R.J. Sawani, the then deputy commissioner of police (zone V) in Ahmedabad.

The panel said there was no justification in summoning Modi, a decision that the JSM will challenge at the Gujarat High Court.