Delhi:
Whether Narendra Modi ordered police officials to remain indifferent to attacks during the communal riots in his state should be determined by cross-examining the Chief Minister and senior policemen. That's the advice offered to the Supreme Court by Raju Ramachadran, a senior advocate appointed amicus curiae or "friend of the court."
Mr Ramachandran submitted his report in August this year on the alleged involvement of Mr Modi in the riots of 2002. The document has been declared confidential. The parts that could worry Mr Modi relate to the testimony by Sanjiv Bhatt, who was a senior police officer at the time of the riots. Mr Bhatt says that at a meeting on February 27, 2002, Mr Modi met with senior police officers and asked them to let rioters continue their attacks uninterrupted. 1200 people died in the riots, most of them Muslims.
Mr Bhatt's version of events was rejected by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court in 2009. The SIT filed its report in court in May 2010. Then the court asked Mr Ramachandran to deliver his assessment of Mr Modi's complicity.
Mr Ramachandran and the SIT have differed in their conclusions. The SIT dismissed Mr Bhatt's statement against the Chief Minister, partly because other policemen at Mr Modi's meeting deny Mr Bhatt was present. Mr Ramachandran says all officials and the Chief Minister should be cross-examined in court. He also says that without cross-examination, Mr Bhatt's claim that he was at the meeting should not be rejected.
A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court said that the case against Mr Modi will be handled by a Gujarat court; and that the SIT is free to decide whether to include Mr Ramachandran's findings in its submission to that local court. The SIT is now seeking legal opinion on Mr Ramachandran's report.
Mr Bhatt, meanwhile, was arrested controversially by the Gujarat government earlier this month. The police accused him of coercing a constable to back his claims against Mr Modi. Mr Bhatt was recently granted bail.
The case that has provoked this expansive investigation was filed by Zakia Jafri in 2008. Her husband, Ehsaan, a former Congress MP, was burnt alive while trying to help his neighbours during the riots a day after Mr Modi's meeting with his senior police staff. Ms Jafri says that the Chief Minister, along with other senior ministers, bureaucrats and policemen colluded to deny assistance to victims of the riots. The Supreme Court, based on her complaint, set up the SIT that then toured the state to piece together what transpired during the riots.