‘SIT didn’t summon me on March 21, but will cooperate with law’, said the Gujarat chief minister in an open letter.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Monday struck back at his detractors and claimed that the special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court to look into the Gujarat riot cases had not summoned him to appear before it on March 21.
Even as activist Teesta Setalvad was busy distributing copies of the 2007 Tehelka tapes in which various people were seen implicating Modi in the riot cases, the chief minister issued a “carefully-worded letter” stating that the “SIT had not fixed March 21, 2010, for my appearance. The date… was invented by some vested interest”. But Modi’s letter made it clear that he would respond to the SIT “fully respecting the law and keeping in view the dignity of a body appointed by the Supreme Court.”
Speaking on his behalf, senior BJP leader and Supreme Court lawyer Arun Jaitley told a hastily-convened press conference that there had been “no direct or indirect, or any form of request, by the SIT to appear” before it. Emphasising repeatedly that “Modi will comply with all legal obligations, show full respect and respond to the SIT as and when a time is fixed,” Jaitley said the March 21 date had been wrongly “leaked to the media by some vested interests trying to intervene with the process of law”.
Jaitley did not spell out the date that Modi had been asked to appear before the SIT or whether he would go in person for the meeting. Neither did Modi’s letter clarify any of these facts. But he did indicate by implication that he had been summoned by the SIT.
While Jaitley bashed the vested interests and the media repeatedly, the fact remains that news of Modi being called was confirmed by SIT chief RK Raghavan himself on March 11 to DNA as part of a telephonic talk.
Jaitley, who flew down to Gandhinagar on Monday morning, held an urgent media conference at the chief minister’s office to clarify on his behalf. “The media has been misleading the people by disseminating incorrect information that Modi was summoned by the SIT on March 21, and that he did not appear,” said Jaitley.
“There have been campaigns running for the past eight years to defame the Gujarat government and the chief minister.”
Taking a side swipe at the NGOs which were fighting for the cause of the 2002 riot victims, Jaitley said as petitioners in the SC, these NGOs should “ensure that there was no interference with the process of law”.
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