SIT quizzes ex-BJP leader Nalin Bhatt in 2002 Gujarat violence cases

Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nalin Bhatt was today questioned by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court to inquire into ten major cases related to the 2002 post-Godhra communal violence in Gujarat.

Mr Bhatt, a former general secretary of the state unit of the BJP, told NetIndian that he was quizzed for three hours by the SIT officials in connection with various cases being investigated by it.

The SIT has been formed by the Supreme Court to reinvestigate ten major cases. It is headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director R K Raghavan. On March 11, the SIT summoned Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to apepar before it for questioning on March 21 in connection with the Ehsan Jaffrey murder case, one of the cases being investigated by it.

Mr Bhatt was summoned by the SIT in connection with the petition filed by Ms Zakia Jaffrey, widow of Mr Jaffrey, a former Congress Member of the Rajya Sabha, who was burnt alive during what has come to be known as the Gulbarg Society case on February 28, 2002.

The SIT is required to submit its report to the Supreme Court by April 30. The petition filed by Ms Jaffrey accuses Mr Modi and 61 others, among them some of his then cabinet colleagues, including Mr Bhatt, of conspiracy in the state-wide violence in the state after the February 27, 2002 Godhra train fire.

Among other things, they are accused of instructing policemen and officials to not respond to the frantic pleas for help from Mr Jaffrey and others after a mob attacked the Gulbarg Societ, trapping them inside. In all, 69 people had died in the incident.

Mr Bhatt said he had recorded his statement before the SIT but declined to give any details.

More than 1000 people had died in the violence in Ahmedabad and other parts of Gujarat that followed the Godhra incident, in which 58 people, many of them "kar sevaks", were killed.

Mr Bhatt, as state BJP general secretary, had called for a "bandh" on February 27, 2002 and the SIT is understood to have questioned him about that as well as other aspects of various cases.

Mr Bhatt said that as the BJP gneral secretary he had also appeared before the Nanavati-Shah Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Gujarat Government to go into the violence.

Later, Mr Bhatt, a former State Minister and deputy mayor of Vadodara, was removed by the party in 2006 for alleged anti-party activities and he became the coordinator of the Pandit Deendayal Seva Sangharsh Samiti.

NNN