The leader of opposition in the state assembly, Shaktisinh Gohil, has accused the state government of using public money to shower favours on the chief of the Supreme Court-appointed SIT, RK Raghavan, to save chief minister Narendra Modi.
Speaking at a rally of Congress workers in Rajkot on Sunday, Gohil alleged that, for this purpose, the state government had 'managed the air fare' for Raghavan for his personal visits to London.
In an official statement released later in the day, Gohil has stated: "I have definite information that several trips of Dr RK Raghavan to London were financed by the Government of Gujarat in order to win him over. These travel bills of Dr Raghavan were cleared against all existing rules and norms of financial propriety. These pleasures trips by Dr Raghavan were purely personal and private in nature and were not connected with the investigations into the post-Godhra communal riot cases."
The statement further alleges that Raghavan had "returned the favour" by making sure that the SIT steered clear of senior government functionaries and their political masters, including the chief minister.
Gohil has claimed in the statement that he had tried to bring this to light in 2009 itself by asking for relevant records under RTI but the SIT had refused to part with the information stating that it was not a 'public authority' as defined under the RTI Act-2005.
Gohil has demanded that if Raghavan denies these facts, he should file an affidavit in the Supreme Court giving details of all travel bills claimed by him.
On March 6, Gohil had accused the state govt of 'striking a deal' with the amicus curiae for riot cases in the Supreme Court, Harish Salve.
