Social activist Teesta Setalvad and Jakia Jafri, widow of the slain Congress MP Ahesan Jafri, on Tuesday told the special investigation team (SIT) probing the statewide riots of 2002 that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was to blame for the riots. Setalvad and Jakia Jafri had been summoned by the SIT which has been directed by the Supreme Court to investigate the role of Modi and 62 other politicians and bureaucrats, in the riots of 2002.
In their hour-long deposition before the investigation team, Jakia Jafri and Setalvad told the SIT chief, RK Raghavan, about the meeting that was allegedly convened by Modi in the chief minister’s chamber on the night of February 27, 2002.
At the meeting, Modi had allegedly ordered that police officials should “lie low and allow people of Gujarat to express their anger”. Speaking to media persons outside the SIT office in Gandhinagar, Jakia Jafri said, “It was because of the CM’s instructions that the police did nothing to stop the rioters.”
Setalvad also told the SIT that information about the meeting convened by the chief minister in his chamber on February 27, 2002 was given by former minister of state, home, Haren Pandya, in his deposition before a citizen’s tribunal on May 13, 2002.
“I, along with at least five other members of the tribunal, was present at Pandya’s deposition where he revealed the details of the order that the chief minister had given on the night of February 27,” Setalvad said. Raghavan later told reporters that Setalvad was summoned by the SIT as part of its investigation into the role of Modi and other politicians and bureaucrats in the riots of 2002.
