New Delhi: Gujarat Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is investigating charges of fabrication of evidence and conspiracy linked to the 2002 riots against activist Teesta Setalvad, retd DGP RB Sreekumar, and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, has stated in an affidavit that the accused were allegedly part of a “larger conspiracy” for “dismissal or destabilization by hook or by crook” of the then state government, headed by Narendra Modi.

Launching a scathing attack on Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi over the Special Investigating Team (SIT) affidavit in the 2002 Gujarat riots case, BJP on Saturday alleged that she was the “architect of the entire conspiracy” and had attempted to “malign” the name of the state through her political advisor late Ahmed Patel.

The SIT, in its affidavit in the sessions court in Gujarat, has claimed that at Ahmed Patel’s behest, Teesta Setalvad and others had plotted to destabilize the Gujarat government.

Addressing a press conference, party spokesperson Sambit Patra said, “The affidavit has brought the truth out that who were the ones who were driving these conspiracies – Ahmed Patel. Ahmed Patel is just a name, the driving force was his boss Sonia Gandhi. Through her Chief Political Advisor Ahmed Patel, Sonia Gandhi attempted to malign Gujarat’s image. Through him, she attempted to insult Narendra Modi and she was the architect of this entire conspiracy.”

Slamming social activist Teesta Setalvad whose name was mentioned in the SIT affidavit that she had numerous meetings with Patel where they received Rs 5 lakhs for the first time and Rs 25 lakhs after two days, Patra said that she was doing all this with political objectives.

“The first political objective of Teesta Setalvad was to destabilize the publicly elected Narendra Modi government in Gujarat. The second objective was to frame innocent people including the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The affidavit says that this conspiracy was to malign the image of Gujarat,” he said.

“What Teesta Setalvad was doing, Sonia Gandhi was impressed with it and awarded her with Padma Shree in 2007. Teesta was a member of the national advisory council of Sonia Gandhi,” the BJP leader said. 

“Sonia Gandhi would have made Teesta the Home Minister, could have given her other big post if the BJP had not come to power,” he claimed.

Patra said that they do not want answers from Jairam Ramesh, who had issued a statement refuting the allegations of the SIT and slamming the Centre for the “mischievous” charges against late Ahmed Patel.“How should the BJP government be dismissed in Gujarat, how to destabilize it, how to play politics with the Gujarat riots, there is only one person behind all this, Sonia Gandhi. Today we are wanting answers from none other than Sonia Gandhi, not Jairam Ramesh. With a clear conscience, we beseech Sonia Gandhi to hold a press conference and address the nation as to why she was conspiring against Narendra Modi,” Patra said.

Congress rejected Gujarat Police’s allegations, saying they were “mischievous” and “manufactured”.

The conspiracy charge, Congress said, was Modi’s “systematic strategy” to absolve himself of any responsibility for the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002.

“This SIT is dancing to the tune of its political master and will sit wherever it is told to. We know how an earlier SIT chief was rewarded with a diplomatic assignment after he had given a ‘clean chit’ to the chief minister,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a statement.

ANI