04 February,2009 04:57 PM IST | | PTI
Gujarat Minister of State for Higher Education Mayaben Kodanani, wanted by the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), today failed to attend the weekly Cabinet meeting, government officials said.
"She was not present in the Cabinet meeting today," a government official said. "She is on tour," said an official at her office in the State Secretariat.
However, he refused to give details of her tour saying that he was not authorised to talk to the press.
Kodanani, a three-time MLA from Naroda constituency in Ahmedabad, failed to appear before the investigation agency despite being repeatedly summoned in connection with the Naroda Gam and Naroda Patia massacre cases in which 95 people were killed on February 28, 2002.
She was summoned twice by the agency to appear before it on January 29 and 31 but she failed to turn up, forcing the agency to declare her an absconder on February 2. Since then, the minister, who is accused of inciting mobs during the post-Godhra communal riots, could not be traced, according to SIT officials.
