Did Narendra Modi visit Meghaninagar before Godhra riot?

Chief minister Narendra Modi had visited Meghaninagar before going to Godhra where 59 kar sevaks were killed by a mob on February 27, 2002. This was a claim made by lawyers of Gulbarg society victim Zakia Jafri in the court on Thursday.

In fact, Zakia’s lawyer Mihir Desai made this claim on the basis of the cell phone call location details of two officials at the chief minister’s office (CMO) — Anil Mukim and Jagdish Thakkar — who had accompanied Modi to Godhra that fateful day.

“Mukim had accompanied Modi from Gandhinagar to Godhra and his mobile location shows his presence at Meghaningar. Hence, Modi must have gone there before going to the airport. Even if we believe that Modi did not go there, the SIT (special investigation team) did not investigate the matter,” Desai told dna.

Documents in this regard were also submitted to the court on Thursday. The documents states, “The location of Narendra Modi at 15:37 hours on (February 27) according to mobile call details of his OSD Anil Mukim, was at Meghaninagar where the Gulbarg society is located. For some strange reason, which the SIT did not investigate, Modi went to Meghaninagar before going to the airport.”

The document further stated: “At 15:34, another member of the CMO, Jagdish Thakkar, is also shown through his mobile log to be in and around Meghaninagar. Modi was accompanied by two persons, Anil Mukim and Thakkar, to Godhra.” SIT has also not raised any question about the presence of additional chief secretary (home) Ashok Narayan and then minister IK Jadeja at Naroda. 

The mob had attacked Gulbarg society in Meghaninagar and killed more than 85 people on February 28, 2002. Zakia’s husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed in that incident.