In a setback to the police, Ahmedabad sessions court today granted bail to jailed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who was arrested on September 30, based on a complaint filed by a police constable. Bhatt was accused of forcing a police constable KD Pant to file a false affidavit supporting his claim that Bhatt had attended the meeting called by the chief minister after Godhra train carnage. He was also accused of fabricating false evidence against the chief minister, whom he had accused of complicity in 2002 riots in which over 1200 people were killed in the state.
During hearing on the bail, Bhatt’s lawyer had contended that the arrest of the whistleblower officer was "politically corrected" and was being harassed by the administration.
Earlier, magisterial court had also rejected the police plea for remand of Bhatt following the arrest.
Following the arrest, Bhatt’s wife Shweta had written to union home minister P Chidambaram seeking adequate security for her husband and her family. She had also expressed fear of his life.
Based on Shweta’s letter, the union minister had written to the Modi government.
Bhatt’s arrest had sparked a nationwide protest slamming the Modi government of systematically harassing the police officials who did not toe the government line.
Earlier in April this year, in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, Bhatt had alleged that Modi had asked the police at a meeting after the Godhra train carnage to allow the majority community to vent their anger against Muslims.
Moreover, just three days before his arrest, he had filed another affidavit in the Gujarat high court claiming that he had "documentary evidence regarding role of some politicians and police officers in the Haren Pandya murder case."
He had also claimed that the then junior home minister Amit Shah had asked him to "destroy and obliterate the report he had sent to the home department about the murder of former junior home minister."