Ahmedabad ,March 28: After Saturday’s marathon questioning for over nine hours in two sessions of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, Special Investigation Team head R.K. Raghavan said on Sunday it would help the team to understand and unravel questions relating to the anti-Muslim riots which engulfed the state in 2002.　

Mr Raghavan said the chief minister’s appearance before the Supreme Court-appointed SIT to answer questions relating to the Gulberg Society massacre, in which former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was among the victims, was a "very big step forward in unravelling quite a few mysteries" relating to 2002. Mr Raghavan, a former director of the CBI, said he was confident of being able to submit his report to the Supreme Court "on or before" the April 30 deadline. He, however, parried queries regarding the "confusion pertaining to the date given to the CM."

The SIT chief declined to go into details of the questioning of 59-year-old Mr Modi, but said former CBI DIG A.K. Malhotra, who grilled the chief minister in two sessions on Saturday, "looks relaxed", and said he has confidence in the officer’s abilities. He also refused to say if an FIR would be filed by the SIT on the basis of Mr Modi’s questioning.

"It is a very big step forward in trying to understand and unravel quite a few mysteries in the matter. I am happy we were able to get the CM for questioning. I have to appreciate the evidence," Mr Raghavan said.

Speaking to reporters a day after facing the SIT, Mr Modi on Sunday refused to go into details about the question-answer session, saying only that as a citizen and a chief minister he was bound by the Indian Constitution and the law, and "the law is supreme".

"In the last eight years, this is the first time someone wanted

to question me. I came in for questioning on the first date they mentioned. Those who are spreading rumours about me not answering for eight years, I ask God to give them some good sense. We should always create the right atmosphere where laws can be upheld," he said.

Saying he had been subjected to "trial by the media", which continues "to keep me in the dock", Mr Modi refused to go into details about the questioning. "I cannot share that with you because the SIT has to submit its report to the Supreme Court." He added he was "told by the SIT that my work is over."

The SIT chief said the petition of Zakia Jafri, wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed along with 68 others at Gulberg Society, was the SIT’s "bible" and the questions broadly related to it. "I have the greatest concern for the victims and I have never failed to take my eye away from justice. I am conscious of the sacred trust given by the Supreme Court," he added.

Mr Raghavan said he and Mr Malhotra had earlier broadly discussed the questions to be put to Mr Modi, who had been directly accused of instigating the communal violence, but he had not yet discussed the answers with him."

On his absence during questioning, he said as chief of the SIT he did not meet witnesses or the accused; and that it was the job of the investigating or inquiry officer. "It is a good old practice followed by the CBI. The director never does the examination. I have brought in this practice here. It’s a fair and healthy practice," he said.

Asked whether the SIT will need to call Mr Modi for questioning again if needed, he said: "I have to look at the evidence that has been collected... what he told Malhotra." The SIT, he pointed out, had the right to recall any witness if there were "gaps" in the testimony. "I broadly knew what the questions were going to be. We sat down, had a session, (and) broadly agreed what we should quiz him on."

He refused to go into details of the questioning, saying: "I respect the functional authority of the investigating officer. I cannot say do this or do that." Asked if 62 questions had been put to Mr Modi, he described it as an "imaginary figure". Mr Raghavan added: "Let him (Malhotra) give his report. I won’t breathe down his neck. The fact that I have brought in Malhotra shows I have tremendous respect for him."

Deepal Trivedi