NEW DELHI : BJP on Saturday went on the offensive over the report of a Special Investigation Team alleging payoffs from an opposition party to prominent activist Teesta
Setalvad
, saying that the findings of the probe team prove Sonia Gandhi’s complicity in the plot to defame the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and prevent him from taking up bigger responsibilities.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, who was reacting to SIT’s report saying that Setalvad received funds from Sonia’s political secretary
Ahmed Patel
to implicate leaders of the BJP government in Gujarat in riots cases, dismissed Congress’s defence of the late party leader and trained his guns on
Sonia
calling her the “key conspirator” and the “driving force” behind the conspiracy.
“The SIT in its final report submitted in the SC has made startling revelations like Teesta Setalvad was given Rs 30 lakh by Ahmed Patel. . . Patel was only a medium following the diktats of his boss, who was Sonia Gandhi,” said Patra as he “beseeched” the Congess chief to hold a press conference on why she conspired against the then Gujarat CM.
“Sonia Gandhi, through Ahmed Patel, gave Rs 30 lakh as the first instalment to Teesta Setalvad for this work. After this, how many crores did Sonia Gandhi give to Setalvad so that Narendra Modi could be humiliated and defamed and implicated in the false conspiracy?” Patra questioned, adding that Sonia used Setalvad to promote Rahul Gandhi in politics.
Reacting to a statement issued by Jairam Ramesh, head of Congress’s media cell, to SIT’s findings against late Ahmed Patel, Patra said: “No Mr Jairam Ramesh, this won’t do. Soniaji owes an explanation to the country. In any case, the statements you issued are of no value and are regularly being exposed by media as baseless”.
The SIT, which was constituted following a
Supreme Court
verdict which absolved Modi of the charge of engineering the 2002 riots in retaliation against the killing of karsevaks who were burnt alive at Godhra while returning from Ayodhya, called for an investigation into the role of disgruntled officers and others who conspired to “keep the pot boiling” over the communal violence.
Setalwad along with two former police officers — retired DGP R B Sreekumar and dismissed IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt — have since been arrested. “Sonia Gandhi, being very pleased with the conspiratorial works of Teesta Setalvad, not only gave her money but also obliged her with Padma Shri,” Patra said. He further said the activist was a member of Sonia’s kitchen cabinet and was put on official panels under UPA. She was trying to get a Rajya Sabha seat but her hopes did not fructify because of Congress’s defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
