Gujarat Riots: SC panel summons Modi, Cong attacks BJP

New Delhi, Mar 11 : The Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court on Thursday summoned Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for questioning on the 2002 communal riots even as Congress said the chief minister should resign immediately.

For the first time ever Modi has been summoned by the SIT in the Gujarat riot cases.

"I can only comment that this summon is in compliance to the petition filed by Zakia Jaffery. We are calling him mainly on that and March 21 is the date that we have asked him to appear before the court. We want to know Modi's response," SIT chief RK Raghavan told reporters.

Zakia Jaffery is the widow of Ehsan Jaffrey, former Congress Member of Parliament, who was killed during the Gulberg Society riots in Gujarat on February 28, 2002. She had filed a 100-page complaint to the SIT naming Modi.

''Narendra Modi had issued instructions to the police and security establishments to remain inactive and allow a free run to rioters. That's why the police didn't act," Jaffery told media.

"He should have been called much before. It took eight years," she said.

"I cannot forget those days," she said.

However, Raghavan said: "We have to first analyse what the petitioners have alleged and look for evidences."

Raghavan said the SIT is scheduled to submit its report on the Gujarat riots by end of April.

Meanwhile, Congress said Narendra Modi should resign immediately.

"It would be appropriate that he should step down," said Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari adding that it is the first time a sitting chief minister has been called in a case of mass murder.

He, however, said resignation was perhaps too much to expect of a person like Modi.

The infamous Gujarat riots of 2002 left hundreds of Muslims dead, injured and tortured and came as a blot in the BJP rule. The riots followed an incident of train burning in Godhra in which Hindus returning from Ayodhya were killed by a Muslim mob.