Gujarat Riots: ‘Enough reason to summon Modi’

There was sufficient ‘reason’ to summon Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and six others in the 2002 riot case, the Godhra inquiry panel heard.

There was sufficient ‘reason’ to summon Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and six others in the 2002 riot case, the Godhra inquiry panel heard on Friday.

“The mobile phone records dating back to the post-Godhra riots of 2002 clearly establish a pattern of conspiracy,” Mukul Sinha, an advocate from an NGO, Jan Sangharsh Manch told the Nanavati-Shah Commission.

“The phone records reveals the nexus between politicians, rioters and the Gujarat police,” Sinha told the inquiry panel which was conducting a hearing on the mobile phone records present in the compact discs (CDs) submitted to the Commission by CBI officer Rahul Sharma.

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Reiterating his demand to summon Gujarat Chief Minister Modi along with six others, Sinha also named the then Home Minister Gordhan Zadaphia and said the records showed that prime accused in the Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam massacre cases were in constant touch with the minister.

Accused Bipin Panchal (in the Naroda Patiya case) was in constant touch with Zadaphia from February 28 to March 7, 2002 when the riots were at its peak, he said.

“A person who is an absconder, what has he to do with a state Home Minister. Another Naroda Patiya accused and secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Jaydeep Patel had rung up Zadaphia 18 times on March 1, 2002,” Sinha said.