Terming the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat as "unfortunate", the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said the Narendra Modi government had taken "strong" steps to deal with the situation due to which such incidents have not recurred in the state. "As far as Modi is concerned, we consider the Godhra incident unfortunate and what followed afterwards in reaction to it -- we consider that also as unfortunate," BJP national general secretary Murlidhar Rao told reporters.
Modi will hold the post till his superannuation on May 31, 2021.
'What happened in Godhra was wrong and what happened thereafter was even worse,' Vajpayee told the Indian community there.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team on Tuesday began its inquiry into a complaint filed against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in connection with the post-Godhra riots. "It can be officially said that we have begun an inquiry into the petition filed in the Supreme Court against some of the leading politicians in Gujarat," SIT chief R K Raghavan said. "This is just the first stage, we have a plan of action for the investigations," he said.
"Hang me if I am guilty," said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as he broke his silence over the 2002 communal riots in his first ever interview to a leading Urdu weekly.
A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar upheld the Special Metropolitan Magistrate's order rejecting Jafri's protest petition against the closure report filed by the SIT.
They had killed 14 Muslims in Ghodasar village on March 3, 2002 during the post-Godhra communal riots.
A group of minority community members damaged shops and vehicles and hurled stones at a village in Gandhinagar district following an objectionable social media post. Police have detained around 60 persons for the clash and rioting.
She is accused of having a role in illegal exhumation of bodies of some victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
"The mobile phone records dating back to the post-Godhra riots of 2002 clearly establish a pattern of conspiracy," Mukul Sinha, an advocate from a non-government organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch told the Nanavati-Shah Commission in Ahmedabad.
The victims of the 2002 post-Godhra violence criticised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday, for not appearing before the Special Investigation Team in Ahmedabad in connection with a riots case and asked him to come clean.
In comments that are likely to create a political storm over the next few days, former Research and Analysis Wing chief A S Dulat has reveled that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had expressed his discontent over the 2002 Gujarat riots and called it "our mistake".
PM Modi's statement on Wednesday led ally Shiv Sena to rake up his past when he was chief minister during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
A group of noted former civil servants on Wednesday sought withdrawal of the Supreme Court's "gratuitous observations" against social activist Teesta Sitalvad and others while upholding the SIT's clean chit to the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 communal riots in the state.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said that in his personal opinion, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh should be banned as most law and order problems in the country are arising because of the Bharatiya Janata Party-RSS.
Zakia Jaffery, wife of Congress leader Ehsaan Jaffrey slain in post-Godhra riots, on Thursday moved a court seeking documents from SIT related to the probe carried out by the agency, based on her complaint against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others, with regards to the 2002 violence.
The Centre, in its affidavit filed in the apex court on Sunday, has also said that trial of these cases should be held outside Gujarat.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi, on Wednesday, rejected the view that he had remained silent on the February 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.
"Sectarian violence killed thousands of Muslims and drove thousands more from their homes in Gujarat and elsewhere in India, a champion of cultural accomodation," the report said.
The Gujarat government's plea to stop monitoring of the trial of the post-Godhra riot cases was on Tuesday virtually turned down by the Supreme Court which said it would not make much difference if monitoring goes on for a few more months.
Former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar alleged the Special Investigation Team, which reportedly gave a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi in post-Godhra riot cases, of not considering "evidences" provided by him and indicated he might approach the Supreme Court on the matter.
The Supreme Court has declined to urgently hear pleas seeking a stay on anti-conversion laws enacted by several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. The matter is now scheduled for hearing in December.
Senior Indian Police Service officer Sanjay Bhatt, who was posted in the Gujarat intelligence department, has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing Chief Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the 2002 Godhra case.
The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Gujarat government to file a survey report of the religious sites which were damaged and destroyed during the 2002 riots in the state. A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra also asked the state government to quantify the amount needed for building and repairing those sites that were affected by the riots.
In what could mean a clean chit to former Gujarat Director General of Police P C Pande, the Supreme Court appointed special investigation team has told a special court in Ahmedabad that there was no evidence of dereliction of duty by the IPS officer during the 2002 riots.
The Supreme Court on Monday directed a trial court to hear a petition by Zakia Jafri, widow of former member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the Gulbarg Society carnage during the 2002 riots, against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Reacting to the verdict, Modi tweeted, "God is great."
The Supreme Court of India has dismissed the bail plea of former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case. The court ruled that there was no merit in his plea for bail or suspension of sentence. Bhatt, along with co-accused Pravinsinh Zala, was found guilty of murder, voluntarily causing hurt, and criminal intimidation by the Gujarat High Court in 2024. The case stems from the death of Prabhudas Vaishnani, who was detained by Bhatt following a communal riot in Jamjodhpur in 1990. Vaishnani's brother alleged that Bhatt and other police officers tortured him in custody, leading to his death.
Gujarat Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi has defended the state government's use of bulldozers to demolish the homes of alleged anti-social elements, saying that only opposition parties are upset about the measure. He also vowed to take strict action against those involved in "love jihad", saying that they would be paraded on the streets. Sanghavi's comments come amid rising tensions over the issue of religious conversions in India.
The commission headed by the retired Supreme Court judge said recording of evidence in Ahmedabad, Vadodra, Bharuch and Narmada will begin from July 15.
Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has petitioned President Pratibha Patil to appoint a new Commission of Inquiry to probe the role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in 2002 riots.
Kolkata Police stopped the trailer launch of 'The Bengal Files', a film based on the 1946 Calcutta Riots, its director Vivek Agnihotri claimed, sparking controversy and allegations of censorship.
Gujarat Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has written a lengthy blog post to "share his harrowing ordeal" in the aftermath of the post-Godhra riots in 2002.
A single judge bench of the Gujarat high court on Tuesday recused itself from hearing a plea by former state minister Maya Kodnani, convicted in the 2002 Naroda Patia riot case, seeking regular bail on the ground of her ill-health.
The feud between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal United, over whether Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi could be the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, worsened on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court on Monday passed judgement in the Zakia Ahsan Jafri case directing the Special Investigation Team probing Modi's role in the riots to submit its final report before a trial court.
The inaction or failure of some officials of one section of the administration cannot be the basis to infer a pre-planned criminal conspiracy by the authorities or to term it as a state-sponsored crime against the minority community, the Supreme Court said on Friday while upholding the SIT's clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 riots.
A designated court in Anand, Gujarat on Thursday awarded life sentences to 18 people and handed out seven-year jail terms to five others in connection with the massacre of 23 people in Gujarat's Ode village during the 2002 post-Godhra communal riots. District and Sessions judge Poonam Singh pronounced the sentence after she found 18 people guilty of murder and criminal conspiracy and five others of attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy on Monday.
A Supreme Court bench on Monday said it cannot go into the issue of supplying Special Investigation Team (SIT) documents relating to the Gulburg Housing Society riot case in Ahmedabad in 2002 to the widow of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri.
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