Zakia Jaffery, wife of slain ex-MP Ehsan Jaffery, on Thursday welcomed the special investigation team's move to summon Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for questioning with regard to a post-Godhra riots case.
"We had high hopes from the SIT and now I am happy that the summons has been issued to Modi," Zakia, on whose complaint the SIT had summoned the chief minister, said. "I have not slept properly ever since the incident.
"Now he (Modi) will also have sleepless nights," she said, adding, "I do not know what will happen afterwards, but I welcome the move."
Zakia's son Tanveer said, "This is a ray of hope for us. We welcome the move of the SIT, though it has come four years after my mother (Zakia) filed a petition in the Supreme Court."
"We see this as a positive step. This, we believe, could lead to filing of an FIR against Modi and others for their alleged roll in post-Godhra riots," he said.
"This also shows that evidence collected by the SIT points towards some role of Modi, his Cabinet ministers and government officials during the riots of 2002," he added.
Congress leader Arjun Modhvadia said the development was just the first step and one should not hope too high.
"It is a open secret that the entire communal riots of 2002 was designed with the Assembly elections in mind so that they could capitalise on the sentiments of people and gather votes," Modhvadia alleged.
"The entire riots was designed by Modi and was monitored by the chief minister's office," he charged.
"Summoning of Modi is just a first step, let us not get our hopes high. We need to see what happens next," he said.
Asked to comment on the nature of investigation done by SIT, Modhvadia said, "There are some officers of Gujarat cadre in the team so there are chances that they might come under state government pressure. But I cannot comment further on this."
Meanwhile, convener of Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM) Mukul Sinha, who has been appearing in litigations for some of the riot victims, said that the move by the SIT was good.
"We do welcome the move of SIT for summoning the CM. It is good. But let us wait and watch what happens. Let us see who would be questioning Modi," Sinha said.
