The Times of India
SIT plans to question Modi on Gujarat riots
by Manoj Mitta | TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: In a process that could prove embarrassing for Narendra Modi, the special investigation team (SIT) intends to question him and 61 others who have been ordered to be probed by the Supreme Court for their alleged complicity in the Gujarat riots.
Authoritative sources in the SIT told TOI that the team would not submit a report to the SC without examining each and everyone of the 62 political leaders, bureaucrats and police officers covered by the April 27 order, including the Gujarat chief minister.
Although the SC has set a three-month deadline for the report, the consolation for Modi is that given the magnitude of its task, the SIT may take longer than that to get around to questioning him. The SIT, headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan, is most likely to seek an extension from the SC before the deadline expires on July 26.
In a related development, the SIT has cited journalist Ashish Khetan as a prosecution witness in at least three Gujarat riot cases after verifying some of the evidence contained in the sting he had conducted for Tehelka magazine on political complicity.
This is not a happy augury for Modi because the SIT could cite Khetan as a prosecution witness against him too if it’s able to verify any of the sting evidence concerning him. Apparently, it was only after such due diligence that the SIT named Khetan as a prosecution witness in the high-profile cases related to Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gaon. SIT may lodge fresh FIR in Guj riot cases
New Delhi: The Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) is planning to question Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 61 others in connection with the Gujarat riots. Moreover, the SIT also named journalist Ashish Khetan as the prosecution witness in Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gaon cases.
In a supplementary chargesheet filed, for instance, in the Naroda Gaon case on April 30, the SIT cited Khetan as a witness against Bajrang Dal activist Babu Bajrangi who had famously bragged in front of the spycam that he had in the course of the 2002 riots wrenched the foetus out of a pregnant Muslim woman.
But the reason why Khetan’s statement and the Tehelka tapes have been appended to the Naroda Gaon case is because the SIT could verify mobile telephone records to confirm Bajrangi’s claim that he had been frequently in touch with VHP leader Jaideep Patel to update him on the Naroda massacre.
It was in the same Naroda Patiya case that the SIT had come up with its first major catch earlier this year when it arrested Modi’s cabinet colleague Maya Kodnani. And that was on the basis of the allegations made by victims and witnesses who had been disregarded by the Gujarat police.
When the SIT began its probe related to Modi on May 26 by recording the statements of riot widow Zakhiya Ahsan Jaffri and activist Teesta Setalvad, its focus was on the secret meeting he allegedly held in his office with ministers and officials on the evening of February 27, 2002 to plot a massive retaliation to the Godhra violence.
At the end of the exercise, the SIT will have three options, depending on the extent to which it is able to verify the evidence. First, it could file supplementary chargesheets in the existing case naming some or all of the 62 persons under probe, including Modi, and report accordingly to the SC. Second, it could register a fresh FIR. The most unlikely scenario is that it would report to the SC that none of the allegations against named persons could be substantiated.
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