Anil Vij demands apology from those who ran false campaign against PM Modi on Gujarat riots

After Supreme Court's lean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2002 Gujarat riots, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Sunday demanded an apology from political parties, leaders and others for allegedly running false campaign and misinformation.

Taking to Twitter, Vij said, "After the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to Narendra Modi in Gujarat riots, the parties, leaders and others who had campaigned falsely on Modi ji will now come forward and apologize to Modi ji. Otherwise, we should expose their names."

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the clean chit given by the court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) to the then chief minister Narendra Modi and others while ruling out a larger conspiracy behind the 2002 Gujarat riots.

A bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar dismissed an appeal against the clean chit to Modi in the Gujarat riots case filed by Zakia Jafri, the widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri killed in the violence who alleged a "larger conspiracy" in the riots. The bench said that it finds the appeal as "devoid of merit."

Following the Apex Court's judgement, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the troika of BJP's political rivals, politically motivated journalists and NGOs, together made false allegations against the BJP and its leaders.

In an interview with ANI, Shah said despite false allegations, the BJP had the trust of the people of Gujarat who kept voting the party to power.

"BJP's political rivals, Kuch ideology ke liye rajneeti mein aye patrakar (journalists who came to politics to pursue their ideology) and some NGOs together (aaropon ko pracharit kiya) publicised the allegations. They had a strong ecosystem so everyone started believing the lies as truth," he stated.

Ehsan Jafri was among 69 people killed during violence at the Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002. His widow Zakia Jafri challenged the SIT's clean chit to 64 people including Narendra Modi who was Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time.

After 58 pilgrims were burnt alive on the Sabarmati Express train at Gujarat's Godhra Railway Station on February 27, 2002, riots broke out across the state in which more than 1,000 people were killed.

(ANI)

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