In a severe indictment of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for his alleged role in the 2002 post-Godhra massacre, the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has held that he failed to control the riots in which more than 1200 people were killed.
In its 600-page report, accessed by weekly Tehelka, the SIT has indicted Modi on several counts such as taking a partisan stance, discriminatory attitude, failing to condemn the violence, destruction of documents with evidentiary value and shunting out police officers who tried to prevent the riots.
The Supreme Court in April 2009 had asked the SIT headed by former CBI director RK Raghavan to investigate the complaint of Zakia Jafri into the murder of her husband Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress MP who was among the 69 people killed by rioters in Gulberg Society.
The SIT report, dated May 12, 2010, said Modi, despite attacks on Muslims, tried to water down the seriousness of the situation by saying that every action had an equal and opposite reaction. It said Modi’s implied justification of the killings suggested a partisan stance at a critical juncture when the state was badly disturbed by riots.
It also indicted the Gujarat police for “patently shoddy investigations in Naroda Patiya and Gulberg Society massacres cases”. Rioters killed more than 100 people in Naroda Patiya.
{{/usCountry}}It also indicted the Gujarat police for “patently shoddy investigations in Naroda Patiya and Gulberg Society massacres cases”. Rioters killed more than 100 people in Naroda Patiya.
{{/usCountry}}In an “extremely controversial” move, the report said Modi placed two ministers Ashok Bhatt and IK Jadeja — whose cellphone records showed they were in touch with rioters — in control rooms of Ahmedabad city police and Gujarat state police during riots with no definite charter, fuelling speculation that they were sent to interfere in police work and give “wrongful” decisions.