Gujarat probes did fact-fudging, helped shield Modi, says new book

Mitta says Modi was never asked how he didn't know - for five hours -- about the killing of 69 people at the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad while claiming that he was tracking the post-Godhra violence as it unfolded.

"The SIT's exoneration of Modi owed much to its reluctance to link the dots and get the big picture of Gujarat."

The SIT made no secret of the pains it took to run down the credibility of whistleblowers who testified against the Modi regime, the book says.

The SIT's conduct became more glaring after the Supreme Court ceased to monitor it in 2011, it adds.

The book also denounces the inquiry commission of Justice G.T. Nanavati for failing to put Modi in the witness box for giving bodies of those who were killed in Godhra to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

Handing over the bodies to the VHP based on a letter from a Gujarat government official proved "the Modi regime colluded with the very group that allegedly went on to unleash the mass killings of Muslims".

"Nanavati went out of (his) way to spare him (Modi) the political embarrassment of being questioned for the riots," it says, adding that the panel "took incoherence in its reasoning to a new level".