Sanjiv Bhatt in police custody for 7 days

The FIR was filed a day after the Supreme Court dismissed the plea of Zakia Jafri, wife of slain former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri, and gave clean chit to then chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Additional magistrate MV Chauhan permitted Bhatt’s request for an orthopaedic mattress owing to his slip-disc condition, during his custody. Bhatt was permitted this privilege at the Palanpur jail as well where he was in judicial custody, serving life imprisonment in a 1990 case of custodial torture.

Advocate Anand Yagnik, representing Bhatt, submitted before the magisterial court of MV Chauhan that the SIT closure report of over 22,000 pages submitted in 2012 was already with the DCB as well as before the court, and added that members of the present SIT were also part of the earlier SIT investigating the 2002 Gujarat riots and thus further police remand is not required.

The SIT’s remand application cited seven points of probe for which they are seeking Bhatt’s police custody. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)

“Thorough investigation (on allegations of fabricated affidavit by Bhatt) was already done in 2012 (while submitting the SIT closure report)… then what remains to be thoroughly investigated 8-10 years later that requires police remand,” said Yagnik.

Stressing on SC’s verdict that had observed that those responsible for keeping “the pot boiling” over the past 16 years “need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law”, Yagnik submitted that “‘in accordance with law’ does not permit the police to initiate proceedings 10 years later”.

The SIT’s remand application cited seven points of probe for which they are seeking Bhatt’s police custody.  The application notes that Bhatt is required to be questioned “in depth on the statements and affidavits” that he made with “malicious intention”, claiming to be present in a meeting with then CM Narendra Modi on February 26, 2002, when “in reality he was not present”.

The SIT also stated that it is “necessary to get the details of” when Bhatt came in contact with co-accused (activist) Teesta Setalvad and former DGP Sreekumar so as to investigate the charges of false documentary evidence and forged records.

The remand application, signed by BC Solanki, Deputy Police Commissioner of SOG crime branch and investigating officer of the SIT (Teesta Setalvad case), also states that it wants to probe Bhatt in the emails he sent to various authorities such as the inquiry commission, home department of the Gujarat government and SIT of riot cases.

The application also states that following the 2002 riots, Setalvad and Bhatt — who was a class 1 IPS officer — met with leaders of political parties at different places and the same needs to be investigated  along with probing “benefits and incentives received by the accused” which according to the SIT, is “clearly established from the record”. The SIT states that the three accused persons’ “malicious intention” was to “punish the innocent people of Gujarat”.