PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Ahmedabad, Apr 22: The post-Godhra riots have come to haunt Narendra Modi with a senior IPS officer alleging that the Gujarat chief minister had allowed Hindus to “vent their anger” against Muslims to “teach them a lesson” during the 2002 communal riots.“In his affidavit in the Supreme Court, IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt has said that the chief minister in a meeting held on February 27, 2002 expressed the view that Hindus be allowed to vent out their anger,” sources close to him said here Friday referring to the affidavit in the Zakia Jaffery case.“I filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on April 14. This is regarding the investigation being done by the Special Investigation Team (SIT),” Bhatt said, but declined to divulge its contents.The officer, who was posted as DCP at the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) during the 2002 riots, said in the affidavit that he had attended the February 27 meeting called by Modi where he asked officers to be “indifferent” to the rioters.Bhatt, a 1988-batch IPS officer, is presently posted as principal of the state reserve police (SRP) training centre in Junagadh district.In his testimony before the SIT, Modi, however, said Bhatt being a junior officer at that time was not present in the February 27 meeting where the chief minister had allegedly asked the police officers to go soft on the rioters.The officer also expressed surprise over how his affidavit, which is likely to be taken up by the Supreme Court on April 27 along with other matters relating to the 2002 communal riots, got leaked to the media.Bhatt has directly filed the affidavit in the Supreme Court, by-passing the apex court-appointed SIT to investigate the complaint of Zakia Jaffery, widow of former Congress MP Ahsan Jaffery, who was burnt alive by a rioting mob at his house.The Supreme Court had in early March asked SIT to submit its report by April 25 on whether any further probe was required against Modi and 62 others in connection with the complaint filed by Zakia Jaffery, whose husband was among 69 killed in the Gulburg society riots.Zakia had approached the Supreme Court after the Gujarat high court had on November 3, 2007 refused to give any direction for investigating the Gulburg society riots and asked her to seek redress from the magistrate’s court.She had alleged that between February and May 2002 there was a “deliberate and intentional failure” of the state government to protect the life and property of innocents.Zakia had also alleged that Modi and others, including his cabinet colleagues, police officers and senior bureaucrats aided and abetted the riots which left over 1,000 people dead across the state.
Ahmedabad, Apr 22: The post-Godhra riots have come to haunt Narendra Modi with a senior IPS officer alleging that the Gujarat chief minister had allowed Hindus to “vent their anger” against Muslims to “teach them a lesson” during the 2002 communal riots.“In his affidavit in the Supreme Court, IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt has said that the chief minister in a meeting held on February 27, 2002 expressed the view that Hindus be allowed to vent out their anger,” sources close to him said here Friday referring to the affidavit in the Zakia Jaffery case.“I filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on April 14. This is regarding the investigation being done by the Special Investigation Team (SIT),” Bhatt said, but declined to divulge its contents.The officer, who was posted as DCP at the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) during the 2002 riots, said in the affidavit that he had attended the February 27 meeting called by Modi where he asked officers to be “indifferent” to the rioters.Bhatt, a 1988-batch IPS officer, is presently posted as principal of the state reserve police (SRP) training centre in Junagadh district.In his testimony before the SIT, Modi, however, said Bhatt being a junior officer at that time was not present in the February 27 meeting where the chief minister had allegedly asked the police officers to go soft on the rioters.The officer also expressed surprise over how his affidavit, which is likely to be taken up by the Supreme Court on April 27 along with other matters relating to the 2002 communal riots, got leaked to the media.Bhatt has directly filed the affidavit in the Supreme Court, by-passing the apex court-appointed SIT to investigate the complaint of Zakia Jaffery, widow of former Congress MP Ahsan Jaffery, who was burnt alive by a rioting mob at his house.The Supreme Court had in early March asked SIT to submit its report by April 25 on whether any further probe was required against Modi and 62 others in connection with the complaint filed by Zakia Jaffery, whose husband was among 69 killed in the Gulburg society riots.Zakia had approached the Supreme Court after the Gujarat high court had on November 3, 2007 refused to give any direction for investigating the Gulburg society riots and asked her to seek redress from the magistrate’s court.She had alleged that between February and May 2002 there was a “deliberate and intentional failure” of the state government to protect the life and property of innocents.Zakia had also alleged that Modi and others, including his cabinet colleagues, police officers and senior bureaucrats aided and abetted the riots which left over 1,000 people dead across the state.
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