New Delhi:
A retired judge who investigated the 2002 Gujarat riots has questioned the claim of RK Raghavan, head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was asked by the Supreme Court to investigate the riots, that his final report includes former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya's testimony against Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
On Monday, a Gujarat court confirmed that the SIT had found no evidence against Mr Modi or 57 others in a case based on the 2002 communal riots filed against them by Zakia Jafri, the wife of former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri, who was killed by a rioting mob on February 28, 2002. Ms Jafri has alleged that Mr Modi and the others were conspirators in the post-Godhra riots; she claims that in the hours before his death, her husband made frantic calls to police control rooms and finally even to Mr Modi, who refused to send help.
(Zakia case: Court says SIT report finds no proof against Modi) |
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Justice H Suresh was part of a people's fact-finding committee that travelled to Gujarat in May 2002, just months after communal violence devastated the state, leaving 1200 people, most of them Muslims, dead. The retired Bombay High Court judge has claimed that Mr Pandya had told his panel that Mr Modi had asked policeman to give rioters a free hand.
He said today that he was surprised that Mr Raghavan's team could have taken the Pandya statement into account and yet turned in a closure report saying there was no evidence against Mr Modi. "What he (Mr Raghavan) says he has also taken that into account. If he had also taken that into account, and we don't know what other circumstances he has taken into account. Where are the other circumstances? For example, Jafri had made repeated calls to the police control room where two ministers were sitting. Why were those ministers sitting there? They were ignoring all calls. If you ask Jafri's wife she will also tell you that Jafri spoke directly to Narendra Modi and Modi seems to have said that I will not help him...This is clear evidence that this man is behind the whole thing. And yet one says there's not enough evidence. I am surprised."
SIT head Mr Raghavan told NDTV yesterday that he stands by his report and is ready for it "to be scrutinized by anyone." He said that the court would finally decide whether Mr Modi should be tried. "If we are wrong, we will bow to the judgement of the court," he said. He also that his team had included Mr Pandya's reportedly damning testimony to the citizen's panel against Mr Modi. "It will be wrong on the part of anybody to say that we ignored Mr Pandya's testimony. We examined it properly and came to a conclusion which is on paper. It will be totally incorrect to say that that we neglected it."
Haren Pandya was the Gujarat Home Minister in February/March 2002 when the communal riots tore Gujarat apart. Mr Pandya later fell out with Mr Modi and was stripped of his minister's post by Mr Modi. He was also denied a ticket to contest the 2002 Assembly elections. In March 2003, Mr Pandya was found murdered in his car after a morning walk.
Justice Suresh told NDTV today that Mr Pandya had sought to depose before the citizen's fact-finding team.
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