Maya's involvement only with Modi's consent: Congress

"No minister would have been involved in such a crime unless they had the consent of the chief minister," Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said on the verdict pronounced by a Gujarat court.

Law Minister Salman Khurshid too welcomed the court decision, saying that it would "enhance people's faith in the legal system".

On target: In this photograph taken on April 22, 2002, a policeman takes aim with his rifle from the roof of a building as a mob riots down in the streets below. File Pic/AFP

However, he refused to comment on the Gujarat chief minister. "I don't want to mix politics with issues around the case. It is not a political battle, but a legal and moral one," Khurshid said.

Modi was the chief minister of the BJP government when a mob killed over 90 Muslims in Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.

Modi's government is accused of being a tacit party to the 2002 Gujarat riots in which over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killedu00a0