SIT quizzes Kodnani in 2002 riot case

The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) today recorded the statement of former Gujarat Minister Maya Kodnani, an accused in a 2002 post-Godhra riot case. The statement was recorded on a complaint filed by Zakia, whose husband Ehsan Jaffery, a former Congress MP was killed along with 69 others in a riot at Gulburg Society in Ahmedabad, SIT officials said.

The Supreme Court on April 27 last year had asked the SIT to inquire into Zakia's complaint where she has alleged that Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others -- including his cabinet colleagues, police officials and senior bureaucrats -- aided and abetted the communal riots over eight years ago.

Kodnani, an accused in the Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya riot case, where 106 persons were killed, is among 62 persons named in the complaint. Kodnani, who resigned from the Modi Cabinet in March last year, was interrogated for nearly one and half hours, the officials said, adding that some others named in Zakia's complaint would be summoned in the coming days.

Last week, the Apex court had allowed the SIT, probing nearly a dozen riot cases, to quiz Gordhan Zadafia (former Minister of State for Home), M K Tandon (an ex-top police officer) and two others named in the probe team's report.The court has permitted the SIT to carry out further investigation into the cases, including the killing of Jaffery, in which Modi has been questioned for his alleged role.

The SIT, headed by former CBI Director R K Raghavan, had interrogated Modi for over nine hours on March 27 this year. The probe team has already recorded statements of several persons named in Zakia's complaint. These include Zadafia, BJP leader I K Jadeja, former BJP legislator Kalu Malivad, sitting MLA Anil Patel, ex-IPS officer R B Sreekumar, social activist Teesta Setalvad and IG Shivanand Jha.