Gujarat cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who has been dismissed from service by the NDA government nine years ahead of his superannuation, has said the government of Gujarat was determined to see him sacked after he filed the affidavit in the Supreme Court “exposing the Narendra Modi government’s complicity in the 2002 riots.”
“My dismissal is based on an inquiry that has been ex parte from the beginning, so probably I will be the first IPS officer to have been removed from service based on an ex parte inquiry ordered by the people who cannot deal with officials who show some spine,” Mr. Bhatt told The Hindu .
The government created a “charade of inquiry that was conducted by the people who are close to the political masters,” he said.
The departmental inquiry ordered by the Gujarat government against Mr. Bhatt was conducted by two IPS officers, Shivanand Jha and Rakesh Asthana, both Commissioners of Police, Ahmedabad and Surat respectively.
Mr. Bhatt alleged that the government had no specific or genuine allegation or charge against him but created “flimsy grounds and charges” to harass him.
Asked why he chose to remain absent from the inquiry process, Mr. Bhatt said the “inquiry was one-sided from the beginning and the people who ordered it prejudged the issue and had arrived at the conclusion irrespective of his participation or absence from the process.”
He also questioned the timing of the dismissal order which, according to him, came before the Supreme Court’s hearing of his petition. “I have a very strong case if I challenge it in court because it has been done ex parte without giving me the reasonable time to defend myself and this order will not stand the scrutiny of the law but I have not taken any decision as yet,” he added.
‘No regrets’ Mr. Bhatt also stressed that he did not regret his fight with the “powerful forces.”
“An IPS officer is expected to be defiant and show some spine against such forces with devious designs. An IPS officer is not expected to facilitate the dirty deeds of those in power,” he said, reacting to the Union Home Ministry’s observation that the officer was “defiant and flagrantly broke the rules.”
