For the first time in eight years since the 2002 Gujarat riots, Supreme Court-appointed SIT questioned Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in two sessions lasting for more than nine hours, on March 27. Modi, who has been facing various allegations with regard to the mob-attack on Gulberg Society in which the then Congress MP Ehsan Jafri and 68 others were brutally killed. Modi was questioned by a team of officers headed by A.K. Malhotra, a former CBI DIG. Modi admitted to have replied to 62 of the 68 questions put to him in the first session. Modi is the first chief minister of any state to be questioned in a criminal complaint of mass murder after he and his administration were accused of aiding and abetting riots. Meanwhile, Teesta Setalvad, Human Rights activist released the tapes of Operation Kalank, a sting operation by Tehelka on the perpetrators of the Gujarat riots. The tapes consist of confessions made by nine people who are currently accused in different riots cases including Babu Bajrangi (Patel), VHP leaders Rajendra Vyas, Dhaval Patel and former Godhra MLA Haresh Bhatt. The tapes show the accused talking in great detail about Modi’s role in the communal riots and giving him the credit for coming up with the idea of a retaliatory attack for the Godhra train incident. Setalvad has also urged the SIT to treat tapes as confession.
On the other hand Indian Muslim Council-USA (IMC-USA) welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court of India to order the interrogation of the accused leader by the SIT. “We urge strong measures be taken to ensure a transparent, unbiased interrogation and an FIR be registered against Modi in light of the Tehelka video tape confessions,” said Rasheed Ahmed, President of IMC-USA.