BJP on Gujarat SIT's charge: Sonia Gandhi behind conspiracy to frame Narendra Modi

New Delhi: Launching a scathing attack on Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi over the Special Investigating Team (SIT) affidavit in the 2002 Gujarat riots case, BJP on Saturday alleged that she was the "architect of the entire conspiracy" and had attempted to "malign" the name of the state through her political advisor late Ahmed Patel. The SIT, in its affidavit in the sessions court in Gujarat, has claimed that at Ahmed Patel's behest, Teesta Setalvad and others had plotted to destabilize the Gujarat government.

Addressing a press conference, party spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "The affidavit has brought the truth out that who were the ones who were driving these conspiracies - Ahmed Patel. Ahmed Patel is just a name, the driving force was his boss Sonia Gandhi. Through her Chief Political Advisor Ahmed Patel, Sonia Gandhi attempted to malign Gujarat's image. Through him, she attempted to insult Narendra Modi and she was the architect of this entire conspiracy."

Slamming social activist Teesta Setalvad whose name was mentioned in the SIT affidavit that she had numerous meetings with Patel where they received Rs 5 lakhs for the first time and Rs 25 lakhs after two days, Patra said that she was doing all this with political objectives."The first political objective of Teesta Setalvad was to destabilize the publicly elected Narendra Modi government in Gujarat. The second objective was to frame innocent people including the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The affidavit says that this conspiracy was to malign the image of Gujarat," he said."What Teesta Setalvad was doing, Sonia Gandhi was impressed with it and awarded her with Padma Shree in 2007. Teesta was a member of the national advisory council of Sonia Gandhi," the BJP leader said.

Patra said that they do not want answers from Jairam Ramesh, who had issued a statement refuting the allegations of the SIT and slamming the Centre for the "mischievous" charges against late Ahmed Patel."How should the BJP government be dismissed in Gujarat, how to destabilize it, how to play politics with the Gujarat riots, there is only one person behind all this - Sonia Gandhi. Today we are wanting answers from none other than Sonia Gandhi, not Jairam Ramesh. With a clear conscience, we beseech Sonia Gandhi to hold a press conference and address the nation as to why she was conspiring against Narendra Modi," Patra said.

The SIT has filed serious charges against Teesta Setalvad, RB Sreekumar and Sanjeev Bhatt in the case of defaming several people including the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Gujarat in the case of petitions to various commissions and the Supreme Court. SIT's ACP BC Solanki's Special public prosecutors Mitesh Amin and Amit Patel filed an affidavit in the sessions court on Friday against the bail plea filed by Teesta, Sreekumar in the Sessions Court stating that the accused had entered into a larger conspiracy with the intention of obtaining illegal money and other benefits from Congress.

Last month, the Supreme Court dismissed the plea filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging the clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and several others in the 2002 Gujarat riots. 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.

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