Stop vilification campaign against Modi: BJP

New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) After a special panel probing the 2002 Gujarat riots gave a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Tuesday the "vilification campaign" against him should stop.

"'No evidence against Narendra Modi' says SIT appointed by Supreme Court. A big relief for us. Ten years of vilification campaign must stop," senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj posted on microblogging website Twitter.

Speaking on the same lines, party General Secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad said there was a "campaign" to frame Modi in the riots.

"There has been a national and also international campaign against Narendra Modi, to somehow frame him in the Gujarat riots. It has become the only mission of certain people and organisations," he said.

"But investigation cannot be continued on manufactured evidence. The law will have its procedure, those guilty in the riots are being punished," he said hailing the report.

He also said people should see the "good work of the Gujarat government", the development and peace and the fact that there has not been any riot in 10 years.

"It is the most growth-oriented state of India being discussed all over the world," he said.

A special panel probing the 2002 Gujarat riots gave a clean chit to Narendra Modi Tuesday, absolving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader of the accusation that he had a role in a case related to the communal carnage.

Metropolitan magistrate M.S. Bhatt, who received the closure report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in February, in his order said the investigators have found no evidence against any of the accused, including Modi, in the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre, one of the cases related to the widespread riots 10 years ago.

Zakia Jafri, wife of the slain Congress leader Ehsaan Jafri who was killed by a rioting mob, had accused Modi and other senior government officers of being conspirators in the riots.