Ahmedabad: Stating that there was enough evidence to prosecute Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged role in the 2002 post-Godhra riots, Zakia Jafri's counsel on Wednesday submitted a detailed written submissions highlighting fifteen serious charges before the metropolitan magistrate.
Zakia 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 in February by SIT, which gave a clean chit to Modi.
In its submissions to magistrate B J Ganatra on Wednesday, her counsel Mihir Desai said that Modi wilfully ignored messages from State Intelligence about the violent repercussions of the RSS-VHP called 'Mahayajna' before the tragic Godhra incident on February 27, 2002.
He maintained that Modi did not initiate precautionary measures that are imperative under Standard Operational Procedure; messages from 7.2.2002 to 25.2.2002, including specific ones that stated that batches of 2,800 and 1,900 kar sevaks had left for Faizabad-Ayodhya and had been behaving provocatively and aggressively against minorities on the way.
"As cabinet minister for home and chief minister, he is directly responsible MOS Home Gordhan Zadaphiya is a constant Co-Conspirator", he added.
Desai has alleged that Modi conspired with the VHP to plot and allow reprisal killings all over Gujarat.
"He conspired with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to plot and allow reprisal killings all over Gujarat. The first phone call that Modi makes after DM Ravi's fax reaches him is, not to appeal for peace and calm, but phone secretary VHP, Gujarat, Dr Jaideep Patel and direct him to Godhra. The Conspiracy between Modi and the VHP is hatched and unfurled to cynically ensure state-wide reprisal killings", Desai said.
"Phone call records show these phone calls between PA to Modi AP Patel and Jaideep Patel immediately after the chief minister receives news of the Godhra tragedy. Phone call records made available by Rahul Sharma (IPS, Gujarat) also show that Powerful Accused were in touch with the chief minister's office (CMO) and the landline numbers of the chief minister", he added.
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 said in his written reply.
He accused Modi of personally instigating individual RSS-VHP men and women at the railway yard at Godhra assuring them that enough time will be allowed by the government and administration to extract a revenge for Godhra.
"The violence was allowed to continue by Modi till May 2002", he said.
He further submitted that Modi is 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.
He also submitted that fourteen out of Gujarat's 25 districts were allowed to burn as Ministers were specifically deployed by Modi to interfere with Police functioning and sit in the State Control Room and Ahmedabad City Control Room; in Eleven Districts where Violence was controlled, the Police Officers in Charge were given Punitive Transfers to send a Political Message. Modi heads the Home department that bends the Police Bureaucracy and Police to his Will.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) is expected to file its reply by September 25. Arguments are already over.
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