Sonia Gandhi acted through Ahmed Patel to target PM Modi: BJP on Gujarat police claims in Teesta Setalvad case

"We want Sonia Gandhi to hold a press conference and address the nation as to why she was conspiring against Modi," he said, claiming that his press conference is not an attack on Patel as he was just a medium through which Sonia Gandhi acted.

The BJP on July 16 alleged that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was the "driving force" behind the "conspiracy" to implicate then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots case in the State.

In a press conference, party spokesperson Sambit Patra claimed that the late Ahmed Patel, who was Ms. Gandhi’s political advisor and a leading Congress leader, was just the medium through which she acted to destabilise the BJP government in the State and damage Prime Minister Modi’s political career. “Sonia Gandhi should address a press conference on this,” he demanded.

Click here to read/download the copy of Gujarat Police’s affidavit

The ruling party's attack on her came a day after the Gujarat police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) opposed arrested activist Teesta Setalvad's bail application and claimed in an affidavit before a court that she was part of a "larger conspiracy" hatched by Ahmed Patel to get the State government dismisses in after the 2002 riots.

Defending Patel, the Congress claimed earlier in the day that the charges levelled against him are part of Mr. Modi's "systematic strategy to absolve himself of any responsibility for communal carnage" unleashed when he was the Chief Minister.

"The Prime Minister's political vendetta machine clearly does not even spare the departed who were his political adversaries. This SIT is dancing to the tune of its political master and will sit wherever it is told to," the Opposition party alleged in a statement.