Harassed for saying that Modi ji was not guilty in the matter of Gujarat riots: Former CBI director

RK Raghavan faced harassment for giving Narendra Modi a clean chit

Tuesday, 27th October 2020

 RK Raghavan, Ex-CBI director said in his autobiography ‘A Road Well Travelled’ that he had to experience harassment from the rivals of PM Modi for jumping to a conclusion that the then Gujarat CM’s involvement in the Gujarat riots of 2002 wasn’t proved through any evidence.

“They engineered petitions against me, accusing me of favoring the CM. The grapevine had it that they misused central agencies to monitor my telephonic conversations. They were disappointed not to find anything incriminating,” wrote Raghavan in his autobiography.

He was the head of the SIT that was crafted to conduct an investigation under the supervision of the Supreme Court into the allegations of Narendra Modi’s involvement in the Gujarat communal riots. It was claimed by Raghavan that the unequivocal stand of the SIT on Narendra Modi ji’s role in the riots wasn’t palatable to Modi’s adversaries.

 He had further contradicted IPS Officer Sanjeev Bhatt’s claims that Narendra Modi, the then CM of Gujarat had conducted an official meeting in the late hours of the night on the 28th February, 2002 and during that meeting he had instructed the senior level police officers not to come in the way in case there was an overflowing of Hindu emotions. However, nothing was found not to corroborate the allegations, claimed Raghavan said in his book.

Raghavan remembered that Narendra Modi’s interrogation was a major event in the investigation. “At one point of time, we had to question Modi on the allegations made against the state administration. We had it conveyed to his staff that he had to come in person to the SIT office for this purpose, and that meeting him elsewhere would be misconstrued as a favour. He agreed to come to the SIT office within the government complex in Gandhinagar,”

Raghavan stated, further adding that he undertook a unconventional step of meting out the task of questioning to Ashok Malhotra, a SIT member. Many were rather surprised by this decision of his.

 “Modi’s questioning lasted nine hours. Malhotra told me that Modi kept his cool right through the session which ended late at night. He never parried questions,” he stated in his book.

While referring to this petition that was filed in the presence of the apex court by the widow of Ex-Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri who too had brought the charges of Modi ji’s involvement in the riots, Raghavan stated the enquiries undertaken by SIT did not find him guilty.

Source: Times of India