R.K. Raghavan, chief of the Supreme Court-appointed probe panel that quizzed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the 2002 riots, said the questioning of Modi was a "very big step forward" in completing investigation into the communal carnage that claimed over 1,000 lives.

Modi was questioned for nearly 10 hours Saturday in Gandhinagar by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on a complaint by Zakia Jaffri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri killed in the riots. She has alleged that the chief minister was party to the 2002 violence that swept Gujarat following a train burning in Godhra that killed 59 people.