The controversial Gujarat cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has requested the G.T. Nanavati-Akshay Mehta judicial inquiry commission to summon him for questioning in the Godhra probe, claiming he was witness to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's role in subverting a 2002 communal riot-related petition before the Supreme Court.
Mr. Bhatt said that having been in the police intelligence wing in 2002, he could not voluntarily disclose details of the happenings to which he was privy as part of his duty as the intelligence officer, unless “required under law.” He said he could reveal the details only if he was summoned by the commission for questioning and his statement recorded, or he was issued a specific direction, through an affidavit, to reveal the details.
Mr. Bhatt claimed he was present when Mr. Modi, on April 11, 2002, handed over Rs. 10 lakh to the then Minister of State for Home, Amit Shah, to “bribe” the lawyers of noted danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, who had filed a riot-related Public Interest Litigation petition in the Supreme Court in March, 2002. The money was meant to indefinitely delay the case or take other measures to ensure that the PIL was not heard by the apex court.
During an earlier cross-examination, Mr. Bhatt had given hints about Mr. Modi's attempts to subvert the PIL, but had refused to give details on the grounds that his affidavit in connection with the Zakia Jafri case was still pending before the Supreme Court.
Now that the apex court had disposed of the case, Mr. Bhatt said, he was willing to give out the whole truth if summoned by the commission.
After Mr. Bhatt's revelation, Ms. Sarabhai had moved an application before the commission for permission to cross-examine Mr. Bhatt but the court reserved its order on the application.
‘Secret funds'
The retired State Additional Director-General of Police, R.B. Shreekumar, who was chief of the State intelligence branch at the time of the riots, had earlier filed an affidavit before the commission, claiming that Mr. Modi had asked him to arrange for Rs. 10 lakh from his department's “secret funds.”
Meanwhile, another controversial IPS officer, Rahul Sharma, who had submitted a copy of CDs containing details of influential mobile phone calls, said he was not aware of how the CDs mysteriously disappeared. He said he obtained the records after due approval from the then Deputy Commissioner of Police.
