Sonia Gandhi acted via Ahmed Patel to frame PM Modi, claims BJP

Advertisement

New Delhi, July 16

Ahead of the monsoon session starting Monday, the BJP and Congress engaged in a war of words over PM Narendra Modi’s alleged implication in the 2002 Gujarat riots case.

While the ruling dispensation alleged AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, through adviser Ahmed Patel, was the “driving force behind the conspiracy against PM Modi, then Gujarat CM, the Congress refuted the charge. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged Patel was “just a name and the real work was done by Sonia, the driving force behind the conspiracy to malign Narendra Modi and Gujarat”. AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed the charges levelled by the Gujarat police against the late party leader were part of PM Modi’s “systematic strategy to absolve himself of any responsibility for the communal carnage” of 2002.

Spare late leader

Charges against the late leader (Ahmed Patel) part of PM Modi’s strategy to absolve himself. Jairam Ramesh, Congress leader

Patra based his offensive on an affidavit Gujarat’s SIT probing the alleged fabrication of evidence against Modi and others in the matter filed in an Ahmedabad court on Friday.

Opposing the bail sought by Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat cops RB Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt, the SIT in the affidavit said the accused “were part of a larger conspiracy to destabilise the Gujarat Government”.

The SIT alleged Setalvad and others hatched the conspiracy “at the behest of late Ahmed Patel, then Rajya Sabha MP and political adviser to Congress president.”

Patra alleged Sonia paid Rs 30 lakh to Setalvad to implicate the then Gujarat Chief Minister.