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Bhatt's note on Gujarat police riot control gets setback

Last Updated 27 December 2011, 15:25 IST

In what could “dilute” suspended Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s claims of Chief minister Narendra Modi’s complicity in the 2002 riots, former DGP and another anti-Modi police officer R B Sreekumar submitted a letter to the Nanavati commission on Tuesday claiming that he was not provided with ample documents by officers of the Intelligence Department, including Bhatt, which could have exposed the role of the Modi government in the Gujarat riots.

Sreekumar filed the letter in response to Bhatt’s earlier submission before the Nanavati commission that he was the staff officer to the Intelligence chief and had authored several damning reports against the chief minister.

Sreekumar, however, claimed in the letter that the claim of being a staff officer was untrue and Bhatt was handling the security wing of the Intelligence bureau.

Sreekumar further claimed after he took over as the intelligence chief on April 9, 2002, he was asked by the DGP to file an affidavit before the Nanavati commission.

He said since he was not heading the bureau during the worst days of the riots, he had asked officers to file the same. “But all officers, including Bhatt, had refused to file the affidavit,” he told the commission.

Further, he stated that since none had filed the affidavit, he had sought details from officers in the IB, including Bhatt, who were assisting the then ADGP Intelligence G C Raigar during that period. Sreekumar claimed that the first affidavit which he had filed before the commission in July 2002 was based on the reports given by these officers.

“It is pertinent that most of these reports were in the form of alert messages to the executive officers in the field and did not contain any information about the subversion of the Criminal Justice System, to deny and delay justice delivery to the riot victims, through acts of commission and omission by state government officials,” said Sreekumar in the letter.

He added that there were no reports informing the government or the DGP about the ground situation of extreme discontentment and dissatisfaction nurtured by the riot victims, particularly of the minority community, against the government officials.

Sreekumar said Bhatt never accompanied him to attended an official meeting, whether chaired by DGP of the chief minister, during his stint as Intelligence chief between April and October.

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(Published 27 December 2011, 15:25 IST)

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