Zakia’s lawyer : Enough evidence to prosecute Modi

By Dilip -
Maintaining that there was enough evidence to prosecute Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged role in the post-Godhra riots, the lawyer of Zakia Jafri on Wednesday submitted in writing before the metropolitan magistrate. The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) is expected to file its reply by September 25. Arguments are already over. Jafri, whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed in the post-2002 riots, had filed a protest petition against the closure report filed last February by SIT, which gave a clean chit to Modi. 

In his submissions to magistrate B J Ganatra on Wednesday her lawyer Mihir Desai said that Modi wilfully ignored messages from state intelligence between February 7, 2002 and February 25, 2002 regarding RSS-VHP's mahayagna and precautionary measures were not initiated by the state. Modi, who also held the Home portfolio then, concealed the information about provocative, anti-Muslim sloganeering by kar sevaks at the Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002, the day the carnage took place, from the public, Desai said.

Desai alleged that Modi conspired with the VHP to plot and allow reprisal killings all over Gujarat. He further submitted that Modi brazenly supported the bandh call given by VHP and allowed the streets and public spaces of Gujarat to be used for mass attacks and violence. Modi specifically instructed his top policemen and administrators not to act even-handedly in the days after the Godhra carnage and "allow Hindus to vent their anger," Desai submitted. The violence was allowed to continue by Modi till May 2002, he said. He further submitted that Modi was guilty of ordering the destruction of crucial documents, including wireless intercepted messages, vehicle logs, police control room records and others on March 30, 2008, four days after the Supreme Court appointed the SIT.

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