SIT interrogates ex-VHP leader Jaydeep Patel in 2002 riot case

AHMEDABAD: The Special Investigation Team ( SIT), probing a few riot cases, today interrogated former VHP General Secretary Jaydeep Patel, an accused in the Naroda Gam case of 2002 riots.

Patel, who is presently out on bail, was questioned for nearly three hours in connection with his statements recorded earlier by the SIT officials at its office in old secretariat campus in Gandhinagar.

"I was called for questioning in connection with my statements recorded earlier," Patel told PTI.

"They had some queries with regard to my statements so they had called for clarification. This is not the first time I have been called. I have come number of times whenever I was called," he said.

Patel along with former minister in the Narendra Modi government, Maya Kodnani, had surrendered before the Supreme Court-appointed SIT after their anticipatory bails, granted by a lower court, was canceled by the Gujarat High Court on March 27, 2009.

Patel is accused of instigating and leading a mob along with Kodnani which killed 11 persons of the minority community in Naroda Gam area of the city on February 28, 2002.

He is presently not associated with the VHP and is out on bail as the trial in the case was in progress.