SIT's reported clean chit to Narendra Modi vindicates our stand: BJP

BJP today said the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) reportedly giving a clean chit to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots cases vindicates the party's stand on the issue.

"This issue is in court. We are not aware of what the SIT has said, so we will not be able to make a detailed comment. But if such an outcome is there then it will be a truth which will vindicate our stand on the matter," leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha and MP from Gujarat Arun Jaitley said.

BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said, "BJP has taken the stand to cooperate with law. People may have been conspiring against the BJP, but we believe in law."

The SIT has submitted its report to the apex court on allegations levelled by the wife of a former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri, Zakia  that Modi and his close aides aided and abetted the post-Godhra carnage in which her husband was killed.

A newspaper report claimed that the SIT has said there was no proof of Modi's complicity in the violence that took place after the Godhra incident.

Mukul Rohtagi, counsel for the Gujarat government, said the state government has been maintaining for the last 10 years that Modi had no role to play in the riots.

"The riots were unfortunate but to allege that the CM was engineering them or was negligent... is a falsehood," he said.

CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said the SIT report was submitted to the apex court in a sealed cover and wanted to know how it was leaked to a newspaper.

The SIT had summoned Modi a few months ago and grilled him for a few hours on the issue.

The court had on April 27, 2009 asked the SIT to inquire into Zakia's complaint.

Zakia had alleged that Modi and 62 others, including his cabinet colleagues, police officials and senior bureaucrats aided and abetted the riots which left over 1,000 people dead. Her husband Ehsan Jaffery was killed along with 69 others by a mob at Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad.