The Supreme Court’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by RK Raghavan has asked Gujarat Chief Minister to appear for questioning on the March 21. Modi will be asked to explain the accusations against him in the murder of former Congress MP Ehsaan Jaffrey, who was burnt alive, along with nearly 70 other people in Ahmedabad’s Gulbarg Society.

 ”The petition made several allegations that several people conspired, created problems on that day. And we examined several witnesses…we are coming almost to the end of the enquiry. So, we naturally have to ask Mr Modi as to ‘what you think of all the information we have gathered.’ Then we will report to the Supreme Court,”  said R K Raghavan. SIT will be submitting its report to supreme court towards the end of April after questioning Modi.

 SIT’s action is on the wake of a complaint filed by Zakiya, Jaffrey’s wife, who alleges that Gujarat Chief Minister and other ministers in his government conspired to allow the massacre of Muslims. Naming Modi and other 62 in his cabinet, Zakiya said in the complaint that policemen and bureaucrats were instructed by Modi and his colleagues not to respond to pleas for help from Muslims being attacked during the riots.

Narendra Modi has been repeatedly accused of orchestrating the riots by many victims, including the activists and ministers and top cops in his own government. Earlier R B Sreekumar, Additional DG Intelligence at the time of riots, had said before a commission o that police and government were deliberately inactive during the riots.

Also more recently an eyewitness Imtiyaz Pathan has told the court that the police refused to come to his help desperate Jafri had called Chief Minister Narendra Modi for help when a mob started gathering outside Gulbarga Society.

Reacting to the SIT’s summons Gujarat government spokesperson Jaynarayan Vyas said “The state government and the Chief Minister would cooperate with the process of law,”. He, however, refused to comment further saying whatever is required to follow the process of law will be done by the state government.