'False accusations' leveled as I gave Modi clean chit

Ground Report| News Desk| Former CBI chief RK, who was the head of the SIT set up to investigate the 2002 Gujarat riots cases. Raghavan has alleged that he was given 'false accusations' when he gave a clean chit to the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi.

In an autobiography titled 'A Road Well Traveled', Raghavan wrote, "They filed petitions against me, accused me of working in favor of the CM, abusing the central agencies and supervised my conversations over the phone, they were Was disappointed about not being found guilty

Raghavan has said that the UPA government had made a mistake in the Bofors scam which he was investigating.

Raghavan resigned from Gujarat SIT in March 2017 and was appointed Cyprus High Commissioner by the Modi government in August.

During the investigation, he had not found any evidence that could prove that the then Modi government was involved in the conspiracy of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

False charges were aired against me… I was found inconvenient because I refused to buy the argument that the state administration connived with the rioters who were targeting the Muslim community,” Raghavan has written in his book A Road Well Travelled, published by Westland Books.

“The SIT’s unequivocal stand on the chief minister’s role was unpalatable to his adversaries in the state and in Delhi. They engineered petitions against me, accusing me of favouring the chief minister. The grapevine had it that they misused central agencies to monitor my telephonic conversations. They were, however, disappointed not to find anything incriminating,” Raghavan has said.

The SIT constituted for investigation under the supervision of the Supreme Court on allegations of Modi's complicity in communal riots was headed by Raghavan. He has claimed that the SIT's clear stand on the role of the then Chief Minister was distasteful to his opponents. He also denied the allegations made by former IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt. Bhatt had alleged that in a late-night meeting on 28 February 2002, the Chief Minister had ordered senior officials not to stop Hindus from expressing their feelings. Raghavan claims in his book that the allegations were not confirmed.

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Raghavan explains that the questioning of Modi during the investigation was an important incident. Raghavan writes in the book, "We had to question Modi on the allegations leveled against the state administration. We sent a message to his staff that he would have to come to the SIT office himself for this and the meeting would be seen as a favorite. He agreed to come to the SIT office in Gandhinar for questioning.”

Raghavan says that he chose SIT member Ashok Malhotra to question Modi. Many people were surprised by his isolation. 

Raghavan wrote in the book, "The questioning of Modi lasted for 9 hours. Malhotra told me that Modi remained very calm till the interrogation was over late in the night. He never averted questions.”

In reference to a petition filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri, in which she alleged that the chief minister and his officials were complicit in the incident, saying It was not found in the investigation that the Chief Minister was guilty. 

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