'Use Tehelka tapes to book Gujarat riots guilty'

Blaming the Narendra Modi government for the 2002 Gujarat communal violence, Communist Party of India-Marxist on Friday said the Tehelka tapes showing "shocking and graphic details" of the massacre should be taken as prima facie evidence and those guilty brought to book expeditiously.

As a number of Gujarat cases were pending before the Supreme Court, the tapes "should be taken as prima facie evidence and the Supreme Court and the Central government should move expeditiously to see that all those guilty are brought to justice," the party politburo said.

In a statement, the party said the Centre and the law enforcement agencies have a "special responsibility" in this regard.

"The Chief Minister (Narendra) Modi and his government were fully responsible for this gross violation of human rights and subversion of the Constitution," the CPI-M said.

Tehelka weekly on Thursday claimed it had "irrefutable" evidence that the killings of Muslims post-Godhra train carnage in Gujarat was "not a spontaneous swell of anger but a genocide" planned and executed by top functionaries of the Sangh Parivar and state authorities "with the sanction" of Modi.

The Tehelka footage has "confirmed what is well known that the 2002 violence in Gujarat was a state-sponsored one," the CPI-M said adding, the "shocking and graphic details of the massacre of the minority community have been brought out by the perpetrators themselves."