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Ahmedabad, Apr. 27 (ANI): The Justice G.T.Nanavati Commission on Wednesday issued a summons to controversial senior Gujarat police officer Sanjay Bhatt in connection with his latest Supreme Court and SIT deposition that Gujarat Chief Minister Narender Modi had ordered police officers in the state not to restrain rioteers when they were attacking Muslims in 2002.

Bhatt, who was posted in the Intelligence Departmentat that time, has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing Modi of complicity in the 2002 Godhra riots case.

Bhatt in his affidavit states that he was that he attended a meeting held at the Chief Minister’s residence on February 27, 2002.

Stating that the senior police officials had blindly followed Modis instructions during in 2002, the officer in his affidavit further stated that this was responsible for the deterioration in the law and order situation in the state.

The officer claimed that he has filed this affidavit in the apex court because he has no faith in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed to probe the case.

Bhatt has also made a request to the apex court to provide protection to him and his family.

A special court in Ahmedabad had on March 1 awarded death penalty to eleven accused and life imprisonment to 20 others in the 2002 Godhra train burning case.

Earlier on February 22, the court convicted 31 and acquitted 63 others, including the prime conspirator Maulvi Hussain Umarji

Apart from the charges of murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, the accused were convicted under IPC sections 147, 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 323, 324, 325, 326 (causing hurt), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds), various sections of the Indian Railways Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and Bombay Police Act.

The court pronounced judgment on the role of over 90 people accused of conspiring and burning the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002. Fifty-nine people, mostly Kar Sewaks returning from Ayodhya, were killed in the incident.

Following the incident, widespread communal riots broke out in various parts of Gujarat in which over 1,000 people, mostly from the minority community, were killed.

The Justice Nanavati Commission had earlier in its 168-page report said that a Muslim mob attacked the Sabarmati Express train and killed 59 Hindus.

It said that the Godhra train carnage was a “pre-planned conspiracy” on the recorded evidence of over 100 witnesses, who claimed to having heard a crowd of about a 1,000 Muslims shouting “set the train on fire and kill the Hindus.”

The report said “instigating slogans” were also made over loudspeakers from a nearby mosque to attack Hindus.

The evidence recorded by the commission also claimed that a mob of Muslims attacked the train and stoned the coaches so heavily that the passengers could not come out. This was to ensure maximum casualties when the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was “set afire.”

The commission, in its 168-page report, said the “conspiracy” was hatched by some local Muslims at the Aman guest house in Godhra. (ANI)