Senior Congress leader and AICC secretary and In-Charge of Gujarat Ponguleti Sudhakar on Saturday sought an inquiry into the leakage of the report given by a Special Investigating Team in which Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been given a clean chit.
He also described the demand by Bharatiya Janata Party state unit president G Kishen Reddy seeking an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi as preposterous.
According to some media reports, the SIT, probing the Gulberg Society Housing Complex attack case in which former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri and over 60 other people were killed, has in its report, said that it has found no evidence of any involvement by Modi.
Mr Sudhakar pointed out that the SIT report was handed over to the Apex Court in a sealed envelope on November 27 and wondered how the contents given to the Highest Court in the country can be leaked.
He also added that why was the BJP trying to use the proceedings in a Court for its party leaders’ political advantage?
Mr Sudhakar also wondered if the investigating agency had purposely leaked the information to the benefit of Mr Narendra Modi on the eve of his arrival to a Congress ruled state?
Reminding that the Supreme Court had on April 27 2009 asked the Special Investigation team headed by former CBI Director RK Raghavan to investigate a complaint by Zakia Jafri, Ahsan Jafri’s widow, he pointed out that the probe team had questioned Modi for hours.
Scoffing at the BJP’s attempt to project Modi as a ‘lily in the valley’, Mr Sudhakar said that the Gujarat Chief Minister is not invincible.
He said that Modi had rigged the last elections by manipulating the voters list. Mr Sudhakar said that around 30 lakh voters had the right to vote in three different places. The AICC secretary said that he had brought this disparity to the notice of the EC, who expressed his inability to do anything.
Mr Sudhakar charged that Modi is involved in the post-Godhra riots and is also an accused in the Sorabuddin encounter case.
The senior leader derided BJP state president Kishen Reddy for demanding an apology from Ms Sonia Gandhi, saying that claim that Modi is Mr Clean and Congress president Sonia Ganhi has to tender an apology to Modi is only due to lack of understanding of law and fact.
He also pointed out that the doubts have been expressed over the conduct of free and fair trial in Gujarat in the Shorabuddin fake encounter case.
Mr Sudhakar charged Narendra Modi of lacking any respect for democracy, human rights and rule of law. He added that several countries in the world are refusing a visa to Modi because of his anti-people stand and stand against people of other religions?
He also pointed out that Zakia Jafri’s complaint had given details of how, as part of a plan, communal riots were allowed to go on in the state with the Chief Minister, Cabinet Ministers, police and bureaucracy abdicating their constitutional duty to protect life and property of citizens irrespective of their caste and religion.
The AICC secretary revealed that Zakia Jafri’s charge against Modi is, “the constitutionally elected head of the state and responsible for fundamental rights, right to life and property of all citizens regardless of caste community and gender, is the architect of a criminal conspiracy to subvert constitutional governance and the rule of law; unleash unlawful and illegal practices during the mass carnage and thereafter protecting the accused who played direct as well as indirect role and abetted commission of the crime.”
After investigating the complaint and related files, the SIT had to seek a direction from the Apex Court to a reluctant Gujarat government for handing over of all alleged ‘hate-speeches’ in and around the time of the riots, he stated.
The SC had criticised the state government and asked it to hand over the documents sought by the SIT. The investigation also saw Modi being quizzed by sleuths over his role during the riots, which left more than 2,000 people dead, Mr Sudhakar reminded.