21, Jan 2010

The Mail Today
January 21, 2010

Kodnani blow for
Modi over riot ‘ role’

By Mail Today Bureau in Ahmedabad

GUJARAT chief minister Narendra Modi is
facing increasing heat over his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. On
Wednesday, the Gujarat High Court directed the state advocate general
to get information from the Nanavati Commission, probing the 2002
post- Godhra riots, whether it proposes to summon Modi.

While this is for the first time that
rumblings on ModiÂ’s alleged direct involvement in the 2002 pogrom is
being heard in the legal corridors, he seems to be up against more
obstacles. Making things worse for him, Amina Belif, a witness in the
Naroda Patiya massacre case, has identified former Modi cabinet member
Maya Kodnani during a cross-examination in a special court.

Belif,
whose grilling was over on Wednesday, told the special court that she
had seen Kodnani, the BJP MLA from Naroda Patiya, interacting with a
Hindu mob near Noorani Mosque on February 28, 2002 and instigating
them to attack the Muslim locality.

Belif
also told her interrogators that the minister fired at the locality
from a “pistol-like weapon”, before leaving the place. “She told the
mob that they should keep things going before she left,” Belif told
the court.

While Kodnani along with Joydeep Patel, a
VHP leader and ModiÂ’s former close aide, were arrested by a special
investigation team (SIT) last year, this is for the first time a
witness identified Kodnani before a court.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had
directed the state government to hand over 14 riot- related documents,
including transcripts of three of ModiÂ’s alleged inflammatory speeches
after the Godhra train carnage, to the SIT. Apart from Modi, the high
court wants the advocate general to confirm whether the Nanavati
Commission proposes to call the home minister, Assembly speaker Ashok
Bhatt and police officer R. J. Savani for deposition by February 15.

A division bench of the high court
comprising chief justice S. Mukhopadhyay and Justice Anang Dave said
in case the advocate general failed to comply with the order, the
court would decide on the petition filed by the Jan ‘ She instigated
mob in Naroda PatiyaÂ’ Sangharsh Manch seeking summons for the four
accused by the commission.

In another development, IPS officer Geeta
Johri has written to SIT chief R. K. Raghavan, probing nine- most
heinous cases of the riots, requesting him to relieve her from the
team. JohriÂ’s resignation came in the wake of the Supreme Court making
adverse observations on her regarding her role in investigating the
Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.