I stand vindicated, says SIT chief R K Raghavan

CHENNAI: With an Ahmedabad court rejecting the plea against SIT's closure report giving a clean chit to Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots case, its head and former CBI Director R K Raghavan today said he stood "vindicated" despite times of despair.

"We did a thorough job. I am happy that the court has upheld our work," Raghavan told reporters here.

Responding to the metropolitan court rejecting the protest petition filed by Zakia Jafri, wife of a former Congress MP, challenging the closure report, Raghavan said Special Investigation Team had worked hard under some "extreme adverse circumstances".

However, he chose not to elaborate on them lest he should sound "petty."

"I feel, in a sense, I stand vindicated. I am professionally satisfied and our hardwork has been upheld," he said.

His officers, including Ashok Malhotra, a former CBI DIG and SIT lawyer RS Jamuwar, both "outsiders to Gujarat," had done all the basic work and that he had only given guidance, he said.

Raghavan thanked the Supreme Court, which had appointed the SIT, saying without its support "at times we could have crumbled.

"The SIT had worked without fear or favour," he said, adding he had done the work given to him by the Supreme Court.

To a question on the impact of the judgement on Modi, Raghavan said he was "apolitical".

"I have no views on politics of the nation," he said. "Both the Union Home Ministry and the Gujarat government cooperated with me in terms of the resources I wanted," he added.

In a major relief to Modi, the metropolitan court had rejected the protest petition filed by Zakia, wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Zafri, against the clean chit given to BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Modi and others by the SIT in the 2002 Gujarat riots.