Congress asks SIT to prosecute Modi

Ahemdabad: The Gujarat unit of Congress on Tuesday demanded that the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team prosecute Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged role in the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

GPCC president Arjun Modhwadia made the demand in a letter to the SIT chief, R K Raghavan. SIT is currently busy preparing the final report on the complaint against Modi and others, to be submitted to a magistrate's court, as ordered by the Supreme Court.

"I do not know how you can avoid taking cognizance of facts and evidence related to the charge against Modi and all those government officials, who intentionally violated statutory stipulation about handing over of dead bodies involved in crime/accident (Godhra train burning)," Modhwadia said in the letter.

"Those responsible for all these acts of commission and omission are liable to be charged under section 166, 186, 187 read with section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC. Your action of exonerating Narendra Modi and his supporters will make Indian criminal justice system a subject of ridicule in the eyes of the whole world," Modhwadia said.

The Congress leader also said that decision of the state government to bring dead bodies of 59 victims of Godhra train incident to Ahmedabad led to a communal frenzy, as the bodies were put on display, resulting in the riots.

The complaint against Modi was filed by Jakia Zafri, widow of the slain Congress MP Ehssan Zafri.

Similar demand -- that SIT prosecute Modi -- has been made earlier by former police officers R B Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt.