RJD questions JD(U) stand on Gujarat riots

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Sunday asked the ruling Janata Dal (JD-U) in Bihar to clarify its stand on Gujarat riots case following naming of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi by a top police official in the case.

Seeking to corner the JD(U), which runs a collation government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar, RJD leader Shakeel Ahmed Khan demanded that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should clarify his stand on the riots case.

Sanjiv Bhatt, a top cop in the Gujarat intelligence bureau during the 2002 riots, said that police ?blindly? followed the CM?s (Narendra Modi) instructions that led to the decline of law and order in the state. He said Modi asked the police to remain ?indifferent? to the rioters.

Khan also demanded the resignation of Modi, a BJP CM, after the latest revelations.

?Modi’s role in the post-Godhra Gujarat riots case has been proved beyond an iota of doubt following the revelation by the senior police official. The latter should quit the chief ministership to allow the ongoing investigation to carry on without being influenced by him,? the RJD leader said.

Modi should be charged with mass murder, Khan further said.

Bhatt, a top cop in the Gujarat intelligence bureau during the riots, said that police ?blindly? followed the CM?s instructions that led to the decline of law and order in the state. He said Modi asked the police to remain ?indifferent? to the rioters.

?The effects of directions given by the Chief Minister were widely manifested in the half-hearted approach and the evident lack of determination on the part of Police while dealing with the widespread incidents of orchestrated violence during the State sponsored Gujarat bandh on 28th February 2002 and also during the weeks that followed,? read a portion of his affidavit.

According to estimates by human rights groups, about 2,500 people, most of them Muslims, were hacked, beaten or burned to death in Gujarat after a suspected Muslim mob burnt alive 59 Hindu activists and pilgrims inside a train in February 2002 in Godhra.