Gandhinagar/New Delhi: The 2002 Gujarat riots returned to haunt Chief Minister Narendra Modi Thursday when a Supreme Court-appointed investigation team summoned him for questioning March 21 over his alleged complicity in the anti-Muslim violence that rocked the state, particularly in the death of Congress's former MP Ehsan Jaffri.

The Congress said it would be "appropriate that he (Modi) should step down before appearing before the SIT."

According to Special Investigation Team (SIT) chief R.K. Raghavan, Modi was being summoned following a Supreme Court order of April 27 last year on a petition of Ehsan Jaffri's widow Zakia. Jaffri was killed during the rioting at Gulbarg society in Ahmedabad.

Zakia's petition related to the "wider conspiracy" surrounding the 2002 communal riots and named Narendra Modi. The petition was referred by the Supreme Court bench to the SIT with directions to look into it.

In her petition, Zakia says Modi, along with other ministers in his government, conspired to "allow the massacre of Muslims". She has alleged that the chief minister and his colleagues instructed policemen and bureaucrats not to respond to pleas for help from Muslims being attacked during the riots.

Raghavan said the chief minister has been summoned to ask him some questions. "A number of witnesses have been questioned, and we would want him to give his side of the story," he added.

After the questioning of Modi, the SIT is expected to submit its report to the Supreme Court by the end of next month.

Zakia has named Modi and 62 others in her complaint. Over 1,000 people had perished in the state-wide communal riots that followed the Godhra train carnage on Feb 27, 2002.

The Supreme Court bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice A.K. Ganguly had directed the SIT to submit a report within three months after inquiring into Zakia's complaint. Jaffri's widow had first made the complaint against Modi in June 2006, on which the state government refused to register an FIR.

The SIT summons led the Congress to demand that Modi should step down as the chief minister.

Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said in New Delhi: "What has happened today should have actually happened many, many years ago. A chief minister of Gujarat and his government presided over the worst massacre of minorities that independent India has witnessed in the last 62 years."

"It is perhaps for the first time that a sitting chief minister has been summoned to appear before a SIT on mass murder. It would be appropriate that he should step down before appearing before the SIT."

But Tewari quickly added that "it would be too much to expect" from Modi to do so.

Spokesperson of the Gujarat cabinet, Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said Thursday night that the Bharatiya Janata Party government and the chief minister would "as ususal always cooperate with the process of law".

Leader of the Congress opposition Shaktisinh Gohil said that "thanks to the Supreme Court, there is hope that justice will prevail".

"The loss was neither of Hindus nor Muslims but of all Indians. It was all vote bank politics," he Gohil.

Teesta Setalvad of the Citizens for Justice and Peace welcomed the decision, but wondered aloud about the timing as the SIT will face the Supreme Court in the matter of the investigations into the numerous cases entrusted to its care by the apex court.

Tanvir Jaffri, son of Zakia Jaffri, sought to reserve his reactions with the remark that "until this is converted into an FIR we would rather wait and watch".

His mother, however, sounded more hopeful. "Better late than never," she said.

The charges against the chief minister in Zakia's plea made out a case of conspiracy and abetment to commit multiple offences of murder. (120 B, 114 r/w 302 Indian Penal Code), furnishing false information (177 IPC), false statement as evidence (199 IPC), giving false information about offences committed (203 IPC) and among others injuring and defiling place of workshop (295 IPC).

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