Without parrying a unmarried query out of the 100-ordinary ones placed to him through the 2002 Gujarat riots SIT, Narendra Modi because the then Gujarat leader minister “stored his cool” for the duration of the marathon 9-hour thinking and did now no longer receive even a cup of tea from investigators, the probe team’s leader at that point R K Raghavan has stated in a brand new book.
Modi had additionally comfortably agreed to return back to the SIT workplace in Gandhinagar for the thinking and taken his personal bottle of water, Raghavan has written in his autobiography, ‘A Road Well Travelled’
Before being requested to move the Supreme Court-appointed SIT that probed the 2002 Gujarat riots, Raghavan had additionally served as head of most beneficial probe employer CBI. He changed into additionally concerned in numerous different high-profile investigations over years, inclusive of the ones referring to the Bofors scam, the 2000 South Africa cricket-fit solving case and the fodder scam.
Talking approximately the time the SIT had known as Modi for thinking because the then Gujarat leader minister, Raghavan writes withinside the book, “We had it conveyed to his personnel that he needed to are available man or woman to the SIT workplace for this reason and that assembly him some place else might be misconstrued as a favour.”
“He (Modi) understood the spirit of our stand and comfortably agreed to return back to the SIT workplace withinside the authorities complicated in Gandhinagar,” Raghvan stated.
The former police officer in addition stated he took the “uncommon step” of asking Ashok Malhotra, an SIT member, to do the thinking, specially to keep away from any “mischievous allegation” later that Modi and he had struck a deal.
“This stand changed into advocated months later through no much less someone than amicus curiae Harish Salve. He informed me that my presence might have vitiated Modi’s announcement and might have robbed it of its credibility,” Raghavan stated, including that he had by no means consulted Salve previous to the event.
It changed into my non-public choice flowing from sheer intuition, stated the retired IPS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, who changed into additionally appointed as High Commissioner to Cyprus in 2017.
“Modi’s thinking lasted 9 hours in my personal chamber on the SIT workplace. Malhotra informed me later that Modi stored his cool proper via the marathon consultation which ended overdue at night,” Raghavan stated.
“He (Modi) by no means parried questions. Nor did he supply the influence of padding up his responses. When Malhotra requested him whether or not he would really like to interrupt for lunch, he to start with grew to become down the offer. He introduced his personal bottle of water and did now no longer receive even a cup of tea from the SIT at some stage in the marathon thinking comprising a hundred- ordinary questions,” he stated.
Raghavan stated it required “wonderful persuasion” to make Modi conform to a quick recess. “This changed into probably Modi’s concession to the want for a respite for Malhotra as opposed to for himself. Such changed into the electricity of the man.”
In February 2012, the SIT filed a closure report, giving a easy chit to Modi and sixty three others, inclusive of senior authorities officials, pronouncing there changed into “no prosecutable evidence” in opposition to them.
In the book, the previous CBI Director additionally asserted that the probe into the Gujarat riots through the Supreme Court-mandated SIT beneathneath him changed into “medical and professional” and the SIT’s “unequivocal stand” at the leader minister’s position changed into “unpalatable to his (Modi’s) adversaries” withinside the country and in Delhi.
“They engineered petitions in opposition to me, accusing me of favouring the leader minister. The grapevine had it that they misused vital corporations to reveal my telephonic conversations. They were, however, disillusioned now no longer to discover something incriminating,” he stated.
Raghavan assumed workplace as head of SIT in early 2008 and carried on for 9 years, till April 30, 2017.
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