Sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt alleges victimisation, demands SIT probe under SC

NEW DELHI: Sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt urged the Supreme Court to order a court-monitored probe by a special investigation team into what he called victimisation by the administration for deposing against the political establishment over the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Bhatt, while deposing before a SIT probing the religious riots, had alleged complicity of the establishment, then headed by Narendra Modi as chief minister, in the riots. The state government suspended him in 2011 citing "unauthorised absence from duty". He was also arrested after a police constable complained that the IPS officer forced him to file a false affidavit before a panel saying Bhatt was present at a meeting called by Modi after the Godhra train carnage.

The central government sacked him last month, saying he remained defiant and flagrantly violated the service rules. Bhatt had earlier sought a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into his allegation of victimisation and the charges levelled against him to get to the truth. On Wednesday, however, his lawyer Indira Jaising told the court that the change in the political dispensation at the Centre had rendered a CBI probe fruitless, and sought a SIT probe.
She also pressed the court to allow Bhatt's plea to make BJP chief Amit Shah, RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy and several former close aides of then CM Modi parties to the case.