Gandhinagar, Mar 27: Chief Minister Narendra Modi was today questioned for five hours by the Supreme Court -appointed Special Investigation Team on his alleged role in the Gujarat riots, the first time he was being probed since the carnage 8-years back.
 The questioning which lasted for five-and-a-half-hours remained inconclusive and would resume in the night.
 “I am taking a break from questioning” the 59-year-old BJP leader told reporters as he emerged out of SIT’s office here.
 Modi said he would try to come back around 9 pm. The SIT Chief R K Raghavan was not present at his office when Modi appeared in response to the panel’s summons. The SIT’s second-in-command A K Malhotra, a former CBI DIG, questioned the chief minister.
 Modi suffered the ignominy of being the first-ever 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 in one area in Ahmedabad.
 Ending the suspense as to where and when he would appear after he was summoned for questioning in connection with a complaint of Zakia Jaffery, widow of former Congress MP Eshan Jaffery, Modi reached the SIT office around noon.
 Jaffery was killed in the riots in Gulbarg society in 2002 along with 69 others.
 The complaint among other things alleged there was a wider conspiracy by Modi and his administration and that he had instructed officers not to take action.
 “My appearance here is a “karara jawab”  (befitting reply) to my detractors. I have given a resounding reply to those who doubted my intentions. I hope such talks by vested interests will stop,” Modi said.
 He said that he wanted to give some time to SIT to do some “homework” before the resumption of questioning.
 Attempting to take a high moral ground, Modi said the SIT probe is impartial and does not have any Gujarat officer.
 Modi claimed he had answered all questions put by SIT and that he would prefer questioning to end in one day.
 “Vistaar se batcheet ki (we spoke in detail),” he said adding, “In Indian constitution, law is supreme. As a common man, CM, I am bound by the Indian constitution and law. No one is above the law.”

Lastupdate on : Sat, 27 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
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