Without stopping a single question out of the 100-odd question posed by the 2002 SIT Gujarat riots, Narendra Modi, as the then Gujarat chief minister, “kept his cool” during the 9-hour marathon of interrogation and did not accept any a cup of tea from the researchers, said the head of the research team at the time, RK Raghavan, in a new book.
Modi also readily agreed to go to the SIT office in Gandhinagar for questioning and brought his own bottle of water, Raghavan has written in his autobiography, “A Road Well Traveled.”
Before being asked to head the Supreme Court-appointed SIT that investigated the Gujarat riots in 2002, Raghavan had also served as head of the main investigative agency CBI. He was also involved in several other high-profile investigations over the years, including those related to the Bofors scam, the 2000 South African cricket match-fixing case, and the fodder scam.
Speaking about the time when the SIT called Modi to question him as the then Prime Minister of Gujarat, Raghavan writes in the book: “We let your staff know that you had to come in person to the SIT office for this purpose and to meeting elsewhere would be misinterpreted as a favor. “” He (Modi) understood the spirit of our position and immediately agreed to come to the SIT office within the government complex in Gandhinagar, “Raghvan said.
The former police officer further said that he took the “unusual step” of asking Ashok Malhotra, a member of the SIT, to do the questioning, mainly to avoid any “malicious allegations” later that he and Modi had reached an agreement.
“This booth was endorsed months later by none other than Amicus Curiae Harish Salve. He told me that my presence would have vitiated Modi’s statement and robbed him of his credibility, ”Raghavan said, adding that he had never consulted Salve before the event.
It was my personal decision that flowed by sheer intuition, said the retired IPS official from the Tamil Nadu cadre, who was also appointed High Commissioner in Cyprus in 2017.
“Modi’s interrogation lasted nine hours in my own room in the SIT office. Malhotra told me later that Modi kept his cool during the marathon that ended late at night, ”Raghavan said.
“He (Modi) never stopped the questions. Nor did he seem to fill in his answers. When Malhotra asked if he would like to take a lunch break, he initially declined the offer. He brought his own bottle of water and did not accept a cup of tea from SIT during the question marathon that included a hundred questions, ”he said.
Raghavan said “tremendous persuasion” was required for Modi to accept a short recess. “This was possibly Modi’s concession to the need for respite for Malhotra rather than himself. Such was the energy of man. ”In February 2012, the SIT filed a closure report, giving Modi and 63 others, including senior government officials, a clean fine, saying there was“ no actionable evidence ”against them.
In the book, the former CBI director also claimed that the SIT investigation into the Gujarat riots ordered by the Supreme Court under his command was “clinical and professional” and the SIT’s “unequivocal position” on the role of the Prime Minister was “unpleasant to his (Modi) adversaries” in the state and in Delhi.
“They designed petitions against me, accusing me of favoring the prime minister. They were said to misuse central agencies to monitor my phone conversations. However, they were disappointed to find nothing incriminating, “he said.
Raghavan said false charges were brought against him secretly to begin with, and then openly.
“Fortunately, the apex court supported me and supported me to the hilt. I was seen as an inconvenience because I refused to accept the argument that the state administration was in collusion with the rioters who were targeting the Muslim community. Our research was clinical and professional ”, he stated.
“If I demonstrated a measure of professional insight and objectivity, it was not uncommon due to the excellent help of Ashok Kumar Malhotra, whom I admitted to SIT in 2009,” Raghvan said praising Malhotra, who was asked to supervise the work of the team. after the supreme court allowed Raghavan to be removed from office in 2017.
Without naming anyone, Raghavan said it was regrettable that he was the target of attack by those instigated by “high-ranking people in charge of affairs in Delhi.”
Speaking about the Ehsan Jafri case, he said there was no record establishing that the congressional deputy had tried to contact the prime minister by phone.
“Some others, including Sanjeev Bhat, had also alleged that the prime minister, in an official meeting late at night on February 28, 2002, had ordered the senior police officers present at the meeting not to intervene if the Hindu emotions were overflowing. Here again, there was no corroboration of the charge, ”Raghvan said.
No one whose presence at the meeting was established beyond doubt told SIT that they saw Sanjeev Bhat at the meeting, held essentially to review the law and order situation that emerged from the attack on the Godhra train, he said.
“In our report to the supreme court, it acquitted the prime minister of alleged illegal targeting of the police,” he said.
Raghavan assumed the position of head of SIT in early 2008 and continued for nine years, until April 30, 2017.
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