Gujarat Riots: SC panel summons Modi

For the first time ever Modi has been summoned by the SIT in the Gujarat riot cases.

“I can only comment that this summon is in compliance to the petition filed by Zakia Jaffery. We are calling him mainly on that and March 21 is the date that we have asked him to appear before the court. We want to know Modi’s response,” SIT chief RK Raghavan told reporters.

Zakia Jaffery is the widow of Ehsan Jaffrey, former Congress Member of Parliament, who was killed during the Gulberg Society riots in Gujarat on February 28, 2002. She had filed a 100-page complaint to the SIT naming Modi.

''Narendra Modi had issued instructions to the police and security establishments to remain inactive and allow a free run to rioters. That's why the police didn't act,” Jaffery told media.

"He should have been called much before. It took eight years," she said.

"I cannot forget those days," she said.

However, Raghavan said: “We have to first analyse what the petitioners have alleged and look for evidences.”

Raghavan said the SIT is scheduled to submit its report on the Gujarat riots by end of April.

Meanwhile, Congress said Narendra Modi should resign immediately.

"It would be appropriate that he should step down," said Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari adding that it is the first time a sitting chief minister has been called in a case of mass murder.

He, however, said resignation was perhaps too much to expect of a person like Modi.

The infamous Gujarat riots of 2002 left hundreds of Muslims dead, injured and tortured and came as a blot in the BJP rule. The riots followed an incident of train burning in Godhra in which Hindus returning from Ayodhya were killed by a Muslim mob.

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Part 1>Justice UC Banerjee Panel probing the 2002 Godhra incident which triggered the Gujarat riots has concluded that the blaze which killed 59 passengers on Sabarmati Express train was accidental. In his interim report Justice Banerjee has rejected "the petrol theory" and the "miscreant activity theory". Justice Banerjee has clearly stated that the fire in S-6 Coach of Sabarmati Express was "accidental". In this background the stand that petrol was thrown from outside by the miscreants to burn the passengers in S-6 coach is baseless. The Forensic Science Laboratory, Ahmedabad's report (filed by the police with the charge-sheet) that the coach was set on fire not from outside but from within. The report has absolved the stone-throwing mob, whatever their number or intent. In any case, the window grills were not broken. There was no attempt by the mob to break into the coach. The doors of the coach were locked from inside. Part 2>The Sangh Parivar and Modi used this claim to set entire Gujarat on fire, leading to a carnage of genocidal dimension which took nearly 2500 lives. Indeed Modi and Co. have tried to justify the carnage as a natural reaction to the gruesome and horrifying burning of '58 Karsevaks' in the train at Godhra, which was universally condemned.The above testimony by the survivors of the victims is terrible, depressing, grief-striking, pathetic and profoundly sorrowful. Who can stop some of the emotionally up set victims relatives turning violent and resort to terrorism to retaliate and take revenge. May One True Almighty God guide them to the right path and give them patience and courage to withstand this horrendous tragedy Posted by sheikhsurali on 2010-03-13 16:31:43   See More Comments On This News

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