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Move for fresh case against Modi put off

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON AUG. 21. After a controversial four-day visit, the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, left Britain today, even as plans by human rights activists to file a fresh case against him in connection with last year's communal violence in his State did not materialise.

However, Suresh Grover, a party to the case which collapsed in a London magistrate's court on Wednesday for lack of evidence, claimed that the move had not been abandoned but simply ``put on hold'' to gain time to get the requisite evidence.

``We hope to return to the court in about a fortnight to seek a EU-wide arrest warrant against him.'' While he insisted that it was still worth pursuing the case, there was a view that with Mr. Modi gone, it was now only an academic exercise. One activist said it was ``a mistake to have left it to the last-minute'', and that the case should have been filed immediately after Mr. Modi arrived here.

The original appeal was jointly filed by Mr. Grover, Gautam Appa of the London School of Economics and activist Jagdish Patel under the U.K. Criminal Justice Act and the International Convention on Torture, to which India is a signatory. Legal sources said it was a ``close call'' for Mr. Modi who, it was confirmed, did not enjoy either diplomatic or state immunity during his U.K. visit.

They claimed that had there been more time to adduce the sort of evidence the court wanted, the outcome would have been different.

``I believe that the judge was too cautious,'' said one legal expert who attended Wednesday's hearing.

The case against Mr. Modi is based on a complaint by Bilal Dawood, a British citizen, whose brother, Fareed, and cousin, Shakil, were by killed by a mob while on a holiday in Gujarat when the violence erupted.

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