Modi ready for quizzing -- with conditions -Governance Now

Modi ready for quizzing -- with conditions

SIT chief Raghavan agrees to them, questioning may take place on March 25 or 26

GN Bureau | March 24, 2010

The Gujarat chief minister has asked for a in-camera hearing at an undisclosed location.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has sent a letter to the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), expressing his readiness for questioning in the murder of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffery in Ahmedabad during the 2002 riots.

He, however, is understood to have set three conditions. One, the interrogation should be at an undisclosed place and not in the Gandhinagar office of SIT for security reasons. Two, he should be heard in camera and there should be no media briefing. Three, he shall appear along with his lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, son of noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani and a member of the BJP national executive.

Media reports on Wednesday suggested that Modi is likely to be questioned by SIT on March 27, but a top source in SIT said the date and time are being worked out with him and it could be even on March 25 or 26.

The source said SIT chief R K Raghavan, a retired CBI director, has agreed to all his conditions as the sole purpose of the interrogation is to get to the truth and report back to the Supreme Court and not to gain any political mileage whatsoever.

Raghavan will not personally interrogate Modi, though he will be available in the premises where the chief minister is questioned for sorting out any difficulties. Interrogation will be by two SIT officials. Raghavan has already handed over to them a questionnaire for probing Modi, based on questioning of a score of other witnesses, the source disclosed.

Modi will be the last person to be questioned before the SIT prepares the report of its findings and submit them to the Supreme Court, which has fixed April 30 as the deadline.

Raghavan, who is being blamed for leaking March 21 as the date for Modi's interrogation, is careful now not to confirm any date when SIT would question him. "It is a privileged communication between the SIT and the witness and I cannot comment on this," he told a news agency.

SIT, constituted by the Supreme Court to probe other 2002 riot cases, was handed over for inquiring into the complaint filed with the court last year by the slain ex-MP's widow Zakia Jaffery for killing of her husband and 69 others in the Gulburg Society of Ahmedabad.

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