Rupa Mody, whose 14-yr-old son went missing in 2002 riots, records her statement before court.
Rupa Mody, whose 14-year-old son Azhar Modi went missing after the Gulbarg society massacre in 2002, narrated her trauma as she made her deposition before the fast-track court judge BU Joshi on Monday. Rupa is one of the witnesses to the massacre which occurred after Godhra incident.
Mody's plight was captured in a movie,
Parzania, which had the mysterious disappearance of her son as its central theme. The film, however, could not be screened in Gujarat after certain organisations issued threats to theatre owners in the state.
Rupa's statement assumes importance in the case as recently another witness Imitiaz Khan Pathan had told the court that while his house was raided by rioters, Congress leader Ahesan Jafri had made a phone call to chief minister Narendra Modi for help, only to be abused by the latter.
Clad in red salwar-kurta, a grim-looking Rupa Mody reached the fast track court at old High Court building accompanied by three women CISF personnel at around 10.30 am. A pin-drop silence greeted Mody, whose seven-year-old fight for justice has created a legion of admirers for her. None of her family members and relatives accompanied Rupa as her husband Dara Mody, who works as chief operator at a theatre in SG Highway, had left for work.
The Parsi couple lived in the society at the time of the riots. They lost their son in the riots, and now live with their only daughter in the upmarket Thaltej area. Everything has changed beyond recognition for this Parsi couple and others in Gulbarg Society, which had a cluster of bungalows amid poor middle class habitations in the eastern part of the city. If one happens to visit the place, one would be surprised that it was ever inhabited by humans.
The society looks like a jungle as thick vegetation has grown all over the place in the seven years since the 2002 violence. This is the only riot-hit residential society where people have not returned to live. Other societies have been reoccupied, albeit partially, as several riot victims are still hesitant to go back there as well.
Ex-min records statement
The Supreme Court-appointed SIT has recorded the statement of former urban development minister IK Jadeja with reference to the 2002 riots in the city.
Although officials of the SIT were tight-lipped about the exact reason why Jadeja was summoned, a source said he was called in as he was one of the cabinet ministers in the Modi government at the time.
Jadeja reached SIT office in Gandhinagar at around 3 pm on Monday. When approached Jadeja refused to comment on the issue, but confirmed that he had been summoned.
A source close to development alleged that IK Jadeja was a part of the conspiracy to plan the massacre in the city. Jadeja was present in the control room in Gandhinagar and was suppose to streamline the police process in the affected places. "He completely failed to fulfil his duty," said the source.
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