Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Madhya Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir
Karnataka
|
Gujarat riots: Modi says ready to appear before SIT panel | Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi may appear before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for interrogation on the 2002 Gujarat riots case on Saturday. Sources
said Modi has verbally responded to the SIT request by asserting that he is ready
to appear provided a certain decorum is maintained by the investigators interrogating
him on March 27. There are reports that Modi's interrogation may not take place
inside the SIT office for security reasons and he may be questioned at a place
mutually agreed by him and the SIT. In a strong statement issued earlier after
he was reported to have kept the panel waiting, Modi said: "It is a matter of
grave concern and needs investigation as to why and who started spreading lies
that Narendra Modi has been summoned by SIT on March 21." In his statement,
Modi
pointed out that March 21 happened to be "a Sunday and a public holiday." "The
purveyors of lies did not even bother to check whether the SIT officers appointed
by Supreme Court were present in Gujarat on March 21," Modi said. Modi alleged
that the date March 21, was given out by "some vested interests and as part of
the effort to interfere in the due process of law." Modi said in his statement
that he would respond to the SIT, "Fully respecting the law and keeping in view
the dignity of the body appointed by the Supreme Court." The SIT, which is headed
by former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director K R Raghavan, is looking
into nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots. The SIT has asked Modi to appear before
it in connection with the Gulbarg Society carnage case. Modi has been named as
one of the 63 accused in the petition filed by Zakiya Jafri, the widow of the
Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed by rioters in Gulbarg society of
Ahmedabad
on February 28, 2002. In the case filed in the Supreme Court, Zakiya stated that
Modi and 62 others had conspired during the riots, and that senior ministers had
ordered bureaucrats and policemen not to respond to calls for help. Over a
thousand
people died in the Gujarat communal riots. The Gujarat High Court has issued a
notice to the Nanavati Commission asking it to explain, by April 1, whether it
too would summon Narendra Modi as part of its inquiry into the 2002 riots. |
|
|
|
|
|