The Sabarkantha District Civil and Sessions Court today issued summons to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in civil suits seeking compensation for families of two Britons killed in the post-Godhra riots. Apart from Modi, former home minister Gordhan Zadaphia, former home secretary Ashok Narayan and former DGP K Chakravarti, who held charge at the time of the riots, have also received summons. They have been asked to make their representations before the court on June 24. The three suits were filed last week by London-based dependents of Saeed Dawood and Shakeel Dawood, who were killed on March 1, 2002, in Prantij village of Sabarkantha district. Another British national Imran Dawood escaped with injuries. The dependents have sought Rs 22.18 crore in damages for the death of Saeed and Shakeel Dawood. Shakeel (30) and his cousins—Saeed (41), Imran Dawood and Mohammed Aswat—were attacked by a mob near Wadwasa village on the Prantij-Ahmedabad stretch of NH-8 when they were on their way to their ancestral home in Lajpur village, Navsari district. While driver Yusuf Palagar was killed, Saeed and Shakeel were dragged to a nearby factory and stabbed. Imran escaped with injuries, and Mohammed is still missing. Suresh Grover, spokesperson for the Dawood family in Batley, told The Indian Express: ‘‘It’s a 60-page document prepared after two years of hard work in consultaion with international lawyers and legal experts. We wanted to initiate criminal proceedings against the persons responsible (directly or indirectly) for the murder, but after consulting lawyers we realised that we did not have any recourse under the Indian legal system. So we filed civil suits for damages.’’ According to Grover, ‘‘In the plaint, we have established a chain of link between CM Narendra Modi, the former home minister and other officials acting on their behest, whose acts and ommissions led to the murders. We have appended eyewitness accounts.’’ The complainants plead that circumstances that led to the murders were orchestrated by Modi and by the omissions of his officers working directly under his orders; that Modi made specific statements about the incident and justified it as a reaction to the Godhra tragedy; and that, rather than creating an atmosphere of peace, Modi abdicated his job of protecting lives and made inflammatory statements creating chaos. Glad at the sessions court decision to issue summons to Modi and the others, Grover said: ‘‘We have been waiting for this for the last two years. Now when the case has been finally registered, we will make sure that those responsible for the murders pay damages to the dependents.’’
