Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who was questioned in two marathon sessions by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT in a Gujarat riots case, has said he recalled to the extent possible the sequence of events that had taken place eight years ago.
Claiming that his quizzing, the first since the communal violence of 2002, has concluded, he declined to go into the details of his questioning, saying that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has to submit its report to the apex court.
“I have been told by SIT that your work is over”, 59-year-old Mr. Modi said at 0100 hours on Sunday emerging from the second round of his questioning at the SIT office at the old secretariat building.
Mr. Modi claimed he had answered all questions put by the SIT and that he had recalled to the extent possible the sequence of events that had taken place eight years ago.
The Chief Minister said his statement was recorded by the SIT investigators after which he signed it.
Asked what sort of questions he was asked, Mr. Modi said, “I cannot share that with you because the SIT has to submit its report to the Supreme Court.”
Though there was no official word on the questioning, Mr. Modi is said to have replied to 62 of the 68 questions put to him in the five-hour-long first session that had begun at noon on Saturday.
Mr. Modi returned to the SIT office at 9 pm and faced a second round of questioning for four hours as he was keen that the entire exercise be completed in one day.
The BJP leader is facing allegations of omission and commission with regard to the mob attack on a housing society in which a former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri and 68 others were killed. He was questioned by a team of officers headed by A K Malhotra, a former CBI DIG.
When pointed out that he had been in the dock for the last eight years over the riots, a smiling Mr. Modi said, “You have still kept me in the dock.”
“Vistaar se batcheet ki (we spoke in detail),” he said, adding, “Under the Indian Constitution, the law is supreme. As a common man, CM, I am bound by the Indian Constitution and the law. No one can be above the law.”
SIT chairman R. K. Raghavan was not present in his office when Mr. Modi appeared in the first session in response to the panel’s summons.
“This was the first time in eight years that someone wanted to speak to me on the issue and I attended that”, Mr. Modi said.
Taking a dig at his critics, he said, “God give good sense to those who said I have not spoken for eight years.
“I hope that today’s happening will give good sense to those who are keen to spread misinformation and those who spread lies”, the Chief Minister said.
