Godhra: BJP happy with Narendra Modi’s ‘clean chit’ reports

Gandhinagar : With reports coming of the Supreme Court-constituted SIT likely to give a clean chit to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Godhra riots case, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is already sighing relief on Friday.

According to government sources, the probe panel, in its recently-submitted status report to the apex court, said it has found no evidence of Modi being linked in any way to the riots.

Meanwhile, the report has come as a relief to both Modi and the BJP.

“We are not aware of what the SIT has said?the issue is with the Supreme Court. But if what media is saying is true, then it will be a truth which will vindicate our stand on the matter,” BJP leader Arun Jaitley told reporters.

On March 27, appearing before the SIT for the first time in the Gujarat riots case, Modi said he acted as a ?responsible citizen? by responding to the summon of the probe panel.

?Indian Constitution and law are supreme and no one is above it. I, as a citizen and as a chief minister, am also bound by it,? Modi told reporters after emerging from a grueling five-and-a-half hour first session questioning by the SIT here.

Apparently seeking to assert that the probe panel was independent and cannot be influenced, he said, ?None of the officers of SIT are from Gujarat. All officers were picked and appointed by the apex court.?

Slamming ?vested interests? for fuelling speculations on the neutrality of SIT, the firebrand saffron brigade leader said his appearance before the SIT should silence his detractors and critics.

Modi, however, did not divulge details of the questioning but said, ?The probe team had detailed discussions with me.?

SIT investigating officer A K Malhotra had led Modi?s interrogation, while the SIT chief was not present.

This was the first time that Modi is being questioned in the riots case. He was summoned earlier this month by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), formed in 2008 by the apex court.

Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, had named Modi as one of the accused in a petition, on the basis of which Modi was summoned.

The MP was killed by rioters in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.

Zakia accused Modi and 62 others of conspiracy during the riots in the case filed in the Supreme Court. According to her, senior ministers ordered bureaucrats and policemen not to respond to calls for help.

At least one thousand people lost their lives in the Gujarat communal riots of 2002.