Ex-IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt remanded in SIT custody after SC order on Gujarat riots

The case was filed by the Gujarat crime branch following an order by the Supreme Court on June 24 which said that three individuals, including Bhatt, wanted “to keep the pot boiling for ulterior design” in connection with Gujarat riots.

A special investigation team of the Gujarat Police was granted seven-day remand of jailed former IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt for investigation in a case linked to the 2002 Gujarat riots in which former DGP R B Sreekumar and activist Teesta Setalvad are co-accused.

(FILES) This file photo taken on December 31, 2012 shows Indian policeman Sanjiv Bhatt receiving a 'Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice' in Ahmedabad. - A former top Indian policeman who accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in deadly communal riots in 2002 was jailed for life on June 20, 2019 over the death of a man in custody in 1990. (Photo by SAM PANTHAKY / AFP) (AFP)

The case against the three was filed by the Gujarat crime branch following an order by the Supreme Court on June 24 which said they wanted “to keep the pot boiling for ulterior design” in connection with Gujarat riots cases.

The case against them was registered on June 25 under sections 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence), 211 (false charge of offence made with intent to injure), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) read with 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

Bhatt was lodged at Palanpur jail in Banaskantha district since 2018 for planting narcotics to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer. He was also convicted for life in a custodial death case.

Earlier, the metropolitan court remanded Setalvad and Sreekumar to custodial interrogation for six days till July 2. They were sent to Sabarmati jail.

In its judgment on June 24, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband Ehsan Jafri was killed in the riots, alleging a larger conspiracy and challenging the clean chit given by the SIT to then CM Narendra Modi and others.

The apex court expressed the need to proceed against those “disgruntled officers” and others whose “coalesced effort was to create a sensation by making false revelations”.

Such officials need to be in the dock for “keeping the pot boiling” with ulterior motives, the court had said.

The FIR has been lodged based on a complaint filed by D B Barad, a police inspector who is serving in Crime Branch, Ahmedabad city since 2019. The complainant has cited the observations of the Supreme Court in the judgment delivered on June 24.

In the complaint, Barad cited the Supreme Court judgment, dated June 24, which said, “At the end of the day, it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officers of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create a sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge. The falsity of the claims has been fully exposed by the SIT after thorough investigation… all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with the law.”