Complaint filed against Narendra Modi for Puppy remark

Hyderabad, July 15: A complaint was filed against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at a police station in Hyderabad on Sunday over the controversial remarks made by him about post-Godhra riots in Gujarat during 2002.

Ghulam Rabbani, a practising advocate, lodged the two-page complaint with Santosh Nagar police station, seeking legal action against Modi and his immediate arrest terming his statements as "highly provocative and malicious against Muslim community, with an intention to wound their religious feelings and promote enmity between Muslims and Hindus".

The police, who received the complaint, said it has not yet registered any case and is seeking legal opinion.

"The complaint was entered in the general diary of the police station," Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Zone) Tarun Joshi said, clarifying that "This is not a jurisdictional complaint falling in our area. We will take legal opinion, otherwise we will transfer the complaint to the police station concerned".

Modi made the remarks during an interview given to a news agency at his official residence in Gandhinagar on July 12, on the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat.

The Gujarat chief minister came under sharp attack from the Congress, SP, CPI(M), CPI and JD(U) for his remarks in the interview during which he claimed that he had not done anything wrong with regard to the riots.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court had given him a "thoroughly clean chit", Modi said during the interview.

When asked if he regretted the riots, Modi's answer that even if a "puppy comes under the wheel of a car, one felt sad," drew particularly sharp condemnation from his political rivals.

PTI