Cool Ahmedabad

Chief Minister Narendra Modi is expected to be questioned by Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Saturday in the former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri murder complaint. The venue and time of the deposition, however, remained undisclosed.

Modi had written to the SIT, through lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, that March 27 or any other date was suitable for him to depose on the complaint filed by Jafri's widow Zakia, who has blamed him and 62 others for failing to protect citizens in the post-Godhra riots of 2002.

When contacted, Jethmalani told TOI, "I have no idea if the SIT has got back to Modi after the letter to confirm the date. Modi had only said that he preferred to appear before the SIT after the Supreme Court hears the Kalu Maliwad petition on April 5".

Maliwad, a former BJP MLA from Lunawada in Panchmahal, who is one of the accused in Jafri's complaint, filed a petition urging the apex court to stop SIT from interrogating Modi and other politicians and bureaucrats on allegations made in Jafri's complaint of negligence and conspiracy in Gulbarg Society massacre.

The SIT's deadline for submitting a report on the inquiry into Jafri's complaint is April 30. R K Raghavan, SIT chief, has been incommunicado since Modi wrote an open letter addressed to "my beloved countrymen", saying how rumours were being spread about SIT issuing summons to him to present himself for questioning on March 21.

However, there is a mystery about where Modi will meet SIT officials because he has reportedly expressed security fears on coming to the SIT headquarters which is in the government office complex in Gandhinagar. The SIT officials are said to have turned down the suggestion of meeting Modi in his official residence at Gandhinagar.

So far, the SIT has recorded evidence of retired director generals of police K Chakravarthi and RB Sreekumar, additional DGPs Kuldip Sharma and Shivanand Jha, deputy inspector generals of police Rahul Sharma and Vivek Srivastava.