Look at the dirty laundry: behind Narendra Modi’s ‘clean chit’ from SIT!
According to a recent report, the impression within the legal circles in Gujarat has been that the SIT chief and former CBI director R K Raghavan, who has given a report which is very favourable for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the Zakia Jafri case, was being pampered by the state government. While Raghavan had a salary of Rs 1.5 lakh and was entitled to executive-class travel by air, there were murmurs about personal trips at Gujarat government expense to London. Besides, Raghavan had no earmarked headquarter so that he could submit all his travel bills across the country even though these visits were not related to the probe.
It now appears that attempts to get information on Raghavan’s travel bills under Right to Information (RTI) are being stone-walled. At least three persons, including the state Congress president Arjun Modhwadia have repeatedly tried to extract these details but even an appeal to the Chief Information Commisioner (CIC) D Rajagopalan four months back has not helped. A Modi confidant, Rajagopalan retired as chief secretary of Gujarat in 2010 after a six-month extension. Post-retirement, the Modi government then made him chairman of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam and then gave him a three-year term as CIC.
More importantly, there are strong bonds between Rajagopalan and Raghavan as their wives are closely related. Sources said Modi had in fact met Raghavan for the first time at a wedding in the Rajagopalan family while the SIT probe was still on.
This is perhaps why not only does the report, submitted by SIT chairman RK Raghavan, exonerate Modi from the criminal charge of conspiracy and facilitating riots, it goes an extra mile to explain the efforts of an “awfully busy” Modi to protect the riot-affected and offer them relief and rehabilitation. The glowing report states that the Army was called in well in time to control the riots and further “The CM was awfully busy with the steps to control the law and order situation, providing medical treatment to the riot victims, their rehabilitation, giving ex-gratia payment to the riot affected, NGO relief camps and with the payment of compensation for destruction of properties during the riots, and also with his efforts to restore peace and normalcy in the state.”
Busy indeed!
P.S. Finally, chew on this – the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has concluded that even if Narendra Modi gave an illegal verbal instruction to allow Hindus to “vent their anger” after the Godhra carnage, it was not an offence.
“…The interpretations made on alleged illegal instructions given by the Chief Minister by (police officers) Shri R B Sreekumar and Shri Sanjiv Bhatt, appear to be without any basis. Further, even if such allegations are believed for sake of argument, mere statement of alleged words in the four walls of a room does not constitute any offence,” the SIT has said on page 241 of its final report.
The report, signed by investigating officer Himanshu Shukla, who is a DCP at the Ahmedabad Crime Branch, was made public on Monday.
[courtesy: The Times of India]