2002 Gujarat Riots: SIT submits report, BJP alleges Sonia Gandhi To Be The Driving Force

New Delhi, July 16: The Bharatiya Janata Party has launched a scathing attack against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi over Gujarat's Special Investigating Team (SIT) affidavit over 2002 Gujarat riots case. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra has said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was the "driving force behind the conspiracy" to destabilise the Gujarat government and to implicate then chief minister Narendra Modi after the 2002 riots in the state.

On July 15th, the Gujarat police's SIT claimed in an affidavit before a session's court in Ahmedabad that activist Teesta Setalvad was part of a "larger conspiracy" hatched by late Congress leader Ahmed Patel. Considering the said affidavit mentioning Congress leader's alleged role, BJP's Sambit Patra, during a press conference said that the "actual driving force" behind the conspiracies was "his boss", Sonia Gandhi.

Speaking to media at BJP's headquarters here in New Delhi, Patra alleged, "The reality has been revealed in the affidavit today that there was a conspiracy but who were the ones that were driving these conspiracies? It was Ahmed Patel, the former Rajya Sabha MP and former chief political advisor to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi."

Patra has demanded that the Congress president must hold a press conference to explain her alleged conspiracy against Narendra Modi.

The affidavit submitted in the city civil sessions court on Friday, challenging Setalvad's bail plea, the SIT formed to probe Setalvad along with R B Sreekumar, then ADGP, Armed Unit, for criminal conspiracy and forgery, cited statements of witnesses and said the conspiracy was carried out at the behest of Ahmed Patel.

Meanwhile, Congress has issued a statement refuting BJP's allegations saying that it was Modi's "systematic strategy to absolve himself of any responsibility for communal carnage" unleashed when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.

Congress party, in its official statement, has said, "The prime minister's political vendetta machine clearly does not even spare the departed who were his political adversaries. This SIT is dancing to the tune of its political master and will sit wherever it is told to."

On the other hand, Patra cited SIT's affidavit that said Teesta Setalvad had received financial assistance of Rs. 30 lakhs from a top leader of a rival political party.

"No one knows how many crores of rupees Sonia Gandhi has spent to malign the BJP and Modi's name and promote her son Rahul Gandhi," Patra added.