Save Sanjiv Bhatt from vindictive Narendra Modi: Shweta to Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: The wife of arrested Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has written to Home Minister P Chidambaram, asking him to ensure the safety of her husband from a "vindictive administration" as well as restoration of his honour.

"Sanjiv has strong apprehension of being physically ill-treated and danger to his life. We are in potential danger from a vindictive administration," Bhatt's wife Shweta said in the letter to Chidambaram.

She alleged that her husband was victimised and arrested merely because a few politicians apprehended serious action against them on the basis of the evidence he was likely to give in some pending criminal cases.

"I want the central government to ensure safety of my husband and his dignity should also be restored," she told reporters in Ahmedabad after writing to Chidambaram.

"I request you to initiate appropriate steps to safeguard right and liberty of my husband and also keep an eye on the victimisation meted out to him. I fear that he may be embroiled in a series of false cases that have no basis to simply harass and intimidate him," she pleaded. "All that my husband has done (that has upset the state administration) is his duty as an officer of Indian Police Service," she said.

Protesting against Bhatt's arrest, a Congress spokesperson here alleged that BJP had made it a habit to victimise any bureaucrat of political adversary who spoke against the autocratic ways of its governments. It gave out the example of IPS officers Rajnish Rai, RB Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma and now Sanjiv Bhatt.

Bhatt was arrested after police constable KD Pant filed an FIR filed against him for allegedly threatening him and forcing to sign a false affidavit with regard to a meeting called by chief minister Narendra Modi on February 27, 2002, hours after the Godhra train accident.