The Gujarat government on Friday hit out at Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram for his statement on the alleged ‘victimisation' of IPS officers in the State, saying “this attitude is dangerous to federal governance of the country.”
The State government also charged that the Congress could go to any extent to topple a democratically elected government.
While IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who had filed a PIL plea before the Supreme Court against the Narendra Modi government over the Godhra issue, was suspended a few days back, a DIG rank officer Rahul Sharma was issued a show cause notice for giving CDs of call records during the violence to various agencies including SIT.
“On the issue of Rahul Sharma, I would like to say that we have not served any charge sheet to him,” State government spokesperson and Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said.
Mr. Vyas alleged that false propaganda was being spread that the State government was taking punitive action against Mr. Sharma for his depositions in the courts and commissions, which is far from the truth.
“Sharma has committed gross misconduct by taking away vital CDs from the case papers. It is not the case that the State government issued a show cause notice to Sharma as he deposed before Courts and Commissions. In fact it is the opposite. Because he did not give the CDs to the investigating officer or the supervisory officer, he has caused serious infirmity to the riot cases investigation,” Mr. Vyas alleged.
“Sharma was serving as Deputy Commissioner of Police [Control], Ahmedabad between March 24, 2002 and July 3, 2002. He was not the investigating officer or the direct supervisory officer in the riot cases, for which, the compact disks were procured from cell phone service providers,” he added.
From the call records data Mr. Sharma had prepared a CD detailing the calls made by important people in the administration including the ministers, police officials and also VHP and Bajrang Dal activists during the 2002 communal violence.
“Sharma, on receiving the said CDs, did not include the same as case property [muddamal],” he said.
“He neither handed over the same as case property to supervisory officer S.S. Chudasama, Assistant Commissioner of Police, [Crime] Ahmedabad city nor to investigating officer G.L. Khunti,” Mr. Vyas said.
“He did not inform the court of jurisdiction about the procurement of CDs and unlawfully retained with him.
“Sharma, on transfer and at the time of relinquishing his charge as DCP [Control Room] Ahmedabad city, did not hand over the aforesaid case property to his successor or investigating officer of this case and illegally carried the CDs with him.
“Hence, he caused damage to the investigation as the CDs collected from service providers of the cell phone companies could not become part of the investigation. Thus, Sharma grossly violated the provisions of law, deliberately caused harm to the investigation of the said case by not depositing the CDs as case property.
“However, the vested interests are trying to mislead people and the nation by false allegations. These forces are trying to shield indisciplined and delinquent officers in the name of Godhra riots. These elements are attempting to interfere in the administrative functions of the State,” Mr. Vyas said.
