False affidavit: Chargesheet against Bhatt

The investigating officer of the case,ACP B R Patel,filed the chargesheet. Patel was handed over the case after the previous investigator ACP N C Patel was transferred to Surat two months ago.

“The investigation is still going on wherein we have taken more statements and collected additional evidence. There are more angles to the case which would be investigated soon,” said B R Patel.

When contacted,Bhatt said,“The state government thinks this move would help them achieve their motto of suppressing the truth. They hurried up before the Supreme Court takes a decision but this move is further going to put them in the dock.”

Bhatt’s advocate I H Syed said the police filed the chargesheet even as the matter for transfer of this case in the Supreme Court is pending and likely to be heard on January 20. “This is the third time that the state government has done this while a writ petition is pending,” he said,adding that earlier it was done in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati encounter cases.

Panth,a constable who had assisted Bhatt as assistant intelligence officer in 2002,had filed an affidavit before Ramchandran affirming that Bhatt had attended the meeting at Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s house on February 27,2002. It was the same meeting wherein Modi had allegedly instructed the bureaucrats and police officers to let Hindus vent their anger after the burning of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra.

Later,Panth filed an FIR with the Ghatlodia police station claiming that Bhatt had called him at his house on June 16,2010,and forced him to file a false affidavit stating that he was there in the CM’s meeting. The constable further claimed that Bhatt had taken him first to the house of Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhwadia where the leader had allegedly assured Panth that he would help him if any problem arose.

The FIR further stated that Bhatt had taken Panth to advocate V H Kanara’s office near the High Court where the affidavit was prepared in advance and he was forced to sign the same.

The city police had earlier filed an affidavit accusing Bhatt of fabricating documents,threatening a public servant and of wrongful confinement.