Zadafiya, once close to Modi, faces interrogation

Ahmedabad: The man who was a key minister in Gujarat during the state's riots in 2002 will soon be questioned by a Special Investigating Team (SIT), appointed by the Supreme Court. The same team interrogated Chief Minister Narendra Modi in March for close to nine hours.

The SIT was appointed by the Supreme Court to unravel the cause of ten major cases of the riots that tore the state apart in 2002.

Zadafiya, in a letter to the SIT, has distanced himself from any political decisions that could have led to the riots which saw a thousand people killed over a few months.  Though he was the Minister of State for Home and therefore held the closest political office to Modi, Zadafiya says, "I held a Minister of State rank and reported to Chief Minister Narendra Modi. I held independent charges only in terms of border security and police housing. In matters of law and order, I had no independent authority."

Families of those who died in the riots, and surviving victims, have alleged that the most-senior layer of Gujarat's politicians colluded to incite communal violence and prevent the police from helping those who were being targeted.

On February 27, 2002, a coach of the Sabarmati Express, headed for Ahmedabad, was set on fire as it was pulling out of the Godhra railway station near Vadodara. Fifty nine people, mostly Hindu activists, were killed. A day later, more than 50 corpses were then paraded, allegedly by Hindu activists instigating a horrific chain of violence across the state.

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The Nanavati Commission, set up to look into the riots, has said the Godhra fire was a conspiracy. It absolved Modi and his administration of any lapse in providing security or relief for those who were attacked in the communal riots that followed.

Zadafiya says that he has no idea who ordered the corpses of the Godhra victims to be brought to Ahmedabad. In his letter, he also states that he doesn't know who ordered senior ministers Ashok Bhatt and IK Jadeja to station themselves in the police control room in Ahmedabad, where they allegedly tried to prevent the police from helping citizens who phoned in to ask for protection.

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Zadfiya has so far refused to directly name Modi or expressed willingness to turn a witness.  He has testified three times already for the SIT but this is the first time that he will be interrogated after the SIT informed the Supreme Court in August that it had found him guilty of complicity in the riots. The court has allowed the SIT to further probe him.

Earlier this year, Zadafiya was edged out of the BJP. He now heads his own Maha Gujarat Janata Party.