Gujarat CM Narendra Modi involved in Godhra case says top cop

The Times of India

Top cop says Gujarat CM Narendra Modi involved in Godhra case

Agencies | Apr 22, 2011, 02.31pm IST

NEW DELHI: Senior IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt, who was posted in the Intelligence Department, has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the 2002 Godhra case.

Bhatt in his affidavit states that he was that he attended a meeting held at the chief minister's residence on February 27, 2002.

Stating that the senior police officials had blindly followed Modis instructions in 2002, the officer in his affidavit further stated that this was responsible for the deterioration in the law and order situation in the state.

The officer claimed that he has filed this affidavit in the apex court because he has no faith in the Special Investigation Team ( SIT) appointed to probe the case.

Bhatt has also made a request to the apex court to provide protection to him and his family.

A special court in Ahmedabad had on March 1 awarded death penalty to eleven accused and life imprisonment to 20 others in the 2002 Godhra train burning case.

Earlier on February 22, the court convicted 31 and acquitted 63 others, including the prime conspirator Maulvi Hussain Umarji

Apart from the charges of murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, the accused were convicted under IPC sections 147, 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 323, 324, 325, 326 (causing hurt), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds), various sections of the Indian Railways Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and Bombay Police Act.

The court pronounced judgment on the role of over 90 people accused of conspiring and burning the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002. Fifty-nine people, mostly Kar Sewaks returning from Ayodhya, were killed in the incident.

Following the Godhra train burning incident, widespread communal riots broke out in various parts of Gujarat in which over 1,000 people, mostly from the minority community, were killed.