BJP defends Modi in Ishrat Jahan case

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday defended Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the Ishrat Jahan encounter controversy, saying he cannot be held responsible for everything that happens in the state.

"Why should Modi take a call?....Do you think anything that happens in any state, the chief minister is responsible? If anything happens in the national capital, is the Prime Minister responsible?" senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said in reply to a question on whether Modi should be held accountable for the Ishrat Jahan encounter.

Naidu accused the media of suffering from "Modi-mania."

"How is the chief minister concerned with this (Ishrat Jahan case)? Let law take its own course," he said.

The S P Tamang report had on Monday alleged that Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed by police in a fake encounter in 2004, terming them as terrorists. The Gujarat government rejected the report on Tuesday.

Naidu said the approach should be "going case by case" whenever such allegations of encounters or human rights violations come up.