The summons to Modi, issued on March 11, come as a major embarrassment to the chief minister, who has always denied any role in the riots. —Reuters/File Photo

AHMEDABAD Top Hindu nationalist leader and the chief minister of western Gujarat state, Narendra Modi, appeared Saturday before a panel probing the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, witnesses said.

It was the first time that Modi, long accused by human rights groups of turning a blind eye to the pogrom, has been questioned by investigators to establish if he had a role in the riots that killed around 2,000 Muslims.

Modi, dressed in a loose white shirt and white trousers, briefly greeted reporters before entering the office of India's Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team in Gandhinagar, Gujarat's administrative capital.

“I shall respond to it, fully reflecting the law and keeping in view the dignity of a body appointed by the Supreme Court,” Modi promised earlier.

There were no immediate details of his appearance before the panel.

The summons to Modi, issued on March 11, come as a major embarrassment to the chief minister, who has always denied any role in the riots.

He is a prominent member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has been touted as a future prime minister.

The summons follows a Supreme Court order to investigators last year to probe a complaint filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of ex-Congress party member of parliament Ehsan Jafri, who was killed on February 28, 2002.

Reports say Jafri was hacked to death and burnt by Hindu extremists who stormed the Gulbarg Society, a residential complex housing Muslim families in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city.

Sixty-eight other Muslims were also killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre, one of many killings across Gujarat triggered by the death of 59 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire on February 27, 2002 that was blamed on Muslims.

An inquiry in 2005 concluded that the fire was accidental.

Previous investigations into the riots commissioned by the Gujarat government have absolved the state police and government of collusion or allowing the rioters a free rein.

But last March, Gujarat's Women and Child Welfare Minister Maya Kodnani was arrested on charges of leading a mob that killed more than 100 people during the riots, making her the highest-ranking state official to be detained. —AFP