CPI-M demands Modi?s prosecution after Bhatt?s revelations

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) on Saturday demanded immediate steps to prosecute Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Godhra riots case following senior police official Sanjiv Bhatt?s statement.

?The affidavit filed by a senior Gujarat police official in the Supreme Court has provided direct evidence of the role of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, in the 2002 pogroms against the minority community,? the CPI(M) polit bureau said in a statement.

In the affidavit, the police official, Bhatt, has stated that the Chief Minister instructed senior police officials in a meeting ?not to act to protect Muslims from violence?.

?This testimony of the police officer, Sanjiv Bhatt, confirms the culpability of the Chief Minister in the pogroms. There should be no further delay in the investigations into the role of Narendra Modi and initiating steps to prosecute him,? the CPI-M demanded.

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.