Gujarat IPS officer Bhatt arrested
He had charged Modi with complicity in communal riots
Nearly seven months after he filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court alleging Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s complicity in the post-Godhra riots, suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested on Friday for allegedly coercing a junior officer to give a statement in his support.
The 1988 batch officer was arrested at his residence by Ghatlodia police following an first information report filed by K D Pant, who was working under him as Deputy Commissioner in the intelligence department in 2002.
Bhatt has been booked under several sections of the IPC including for threatening a public servant.
In his complaint, Pant alleged that Bhatt had threatened him to sign the statement supporting his claim that he had attended the law and order meeting chaired by Chief Minister Modi on February 27, 2002.
He had alleged that Bhatt had taken him to the residence of state Congress chief Arjun Modhvadiya, where he was asked to sign a statement under duress.
In his statement to the SC, Bhatt had claimed nearly half a dozen police and IAS officers were present at the law and order meeting, in which Modi had reportedly instructed them to go slow on rioters.
However, the Modi-led BJP government in the state said Bhatt was not present at the meeting. Even the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the riot case had claimed in its report that they have no evidence to support Bhatt’s claims. For his part, the police officer presented his former car driver Tarachand before the media to confirm his claims that he had indeed been driven to the Chief Minister’s residence on the day in question.
Bhatt had claimed that Pant, a junior officer, had also accompanied him to the chief minister’s residence on February 27 meeting. Though Yadav had seconded Bhatt’s claim before the Amicus curie in the riot case, Rajesh Ramchandran, Pant did not meet with Ramchandran. He was directed by the Supreme Court to make an assessment of the SIT report on Gujarat riot cases in June. However, he filed a police complaint against Bhatt.
In a relative development, Bhatt had filed an affidavit in Gujarat High Court just a few days ago in connection with an old custodial death case, in which he alleged that the Modi government has victimised him not just for his Supreme Court affidavit against the Chief Minister, but also for the evidences he had come across during his stint as superintendent of the Sabarmati jail indicating that former MoS, Home, Haren Pandyas murder had been committed at the behest of police officials and politicians in Gujarat.
