Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was today summoned for questioning in the 2002 riots in Gujarat, after a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) asked him to appear before it on March 21.
The summons were issued in connection with a complaint by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed along with 69 others during the rioting at the Gulbarg housing society in Ahmedabad.
The summon came as a major embarrassment to Gujarat’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, as many of its leaders had endorsed Modi as the prime minister for 2014.
In her 100-page complaint, Zakia alleged Modi and 62 others had aided and abetted those involved in the riots that followed the Godhra train carnage. She also said the police refused to register her complaint.
The SIT is chaired by ex-head of the Central Bureau of Investigation, R K Raghavan. It had already investigated the charges in the Jafri case once. Following Zakia’s petition, a second set of investigation was ordered by the court.
Zakia alleged that between February and May 2002, there was a “deliberate and intentional failure” of the state government to protect the life and property of innocent denizens through a “well-executed and sinister criminal conspiracy” amongst the accused that resulted in the breakdown of constitutional governance in the state.
A two-judge bench of the SC, of Justices Arijit Pasayat and A K Ganguly, had ordered that the SIT “will inquire into the complaint made by the petitioner (Zakia) and file its report within three months”. This period ends in April.
Zakia approached the apex court after the Gujarat High Court, on November 3, 2007, refused to give any direction on her petition and asked her to seek redressal before a magistrate’s court.
The apex court bench said it would be appropriate for SIT to look into her complaint.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Gujarat government, had argued that the SIT was already probing the case relating to Gulbarg and the matter was pending before a trial court in Ahmedabad.
