The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), looking into some of the massacres during the post-Godhra communal riots in Gujarat in 2002, on Tuesday recorded the statement of Rupa Modi in connection with the Gulberg Society incident in Ahmedabad.
Ms. Modi is the mother of the “missing” Azhar and lived with the hope of her son being alive and returning soon, until the State police declared all the missing as “dead” after the expiry of seven years earlier this year.
The feature film Parzania was based on Ms. Modi and her family, projecting the parents’ agonising wait for the return of the missing son. The film was not allowed to be screened in Gujarat.
Ms. Modi reportedly told SIT that despite repeated calls by the former Congress member of the Lok Sabha, Ehsan Jafri, who was among the 69 people killed in the Gulberg Society massacre, the police refused to extend any help and allowed the marauding crowd to plunder the Muslim residents.
Zakia Jafri, wife of the slain MP, was among the complainants before the apex court, directly naming Chief Minister Narendra Modi as one of the accused in the massacre.
On Monday, SIT called the former Urban Development Minister and official spokesman of the BJP, I.K. Jadeja, for recording his statement. Mr. Jadeja was believed to be sitting in the police control room during the riots on February 28, 2002 — when Gulberg Society and many other minority localities were attacked — and was alleged to be instrumental in directing the police to move away from the riot sites to give the Hindus time to “avenge” the victims of the Godhra train carnage the previous day.
Mr. Jadeja, however, declined to give details of his deposition before SIT, claiming it was “sub-judice.”