Sanjay Bhatt was not present at Feb 2002 Modi meet : Former DGP

Former Gujarat director general of police K Chakravarti claims that Sanjiv Bhatt was not present at the February 27, 2002 meeting at the residence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

"Sanjiv Bhatt was not present at the meeting. I have already deposed before the Nanavati commission and the SIT. I have nothing more to add. The court will be considering various affidavits and will come to a conclusion which will be binding on all. I have nothing more to say as the matter is subjudice," Chakravarti said while reacting to Bhatt's affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on the meeting and 2002 Gujarat riots.

Chakravarti said that the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) will submit its findings before the court which will then deliver its verdict.

"I have already made my deposition in this regard before the Special investigation Team and they are bound to make their findings available before the apex court and the honourable apex court will come up with whatever verdict they have on the subject," the former Gujarat DGP told.
"In the meeting he was not there. I have already deposed that before the SIT. The Special Investigation Team will come up with their findings and place it before the Supreme Court and the honourable court will decide on the basis of whatever facts are placed before it and after checking the versions of everybody and who is speaking the truth. So we will have to wait for the verdict and opinion of the honourable apex court," Charavarti replied when repeatedly asked if Bhatt was indeed present at the meeting.

He also declined to comment if Bhatt was lying in his affidavit in which the 1988 batch Indian Police Service officer has claimed that Modi said during the meeting that Hindus should be allowed to express their anger and Muslims should be taught a befitting lesson so that incidents like the burning of Sabarmati Express never happen again in Gujarat.

"I have no such comments to make. I have only made my version clear and now it is for the apex court to say whatever it has to say. I have nothing further to make. I have no idea. It is for the SIT to find out and they will come up with their findings and the Supreme Court will decide," said Chakravarti.

He said that he was never issued any instruction to let the police force remain a mute spectator during the riots.

"I have already clarified before the SIT. I have deposed before the Nanavati Commission. I have been cross examined before the Nanavati Commission. No such instructions were issued to me," said Chakravarti.

The SIT report confirms that eight people participated in the meeting. These include Modi, acting chief secretary Swarna Kanta Verma, additional chief secretary (Home) Ashok Narayan, the then DGP K Chakravarti, Ahmedabad police commissioner PC Pande, secretary (home) K Nityanandam, principal secretary to chief minister PK Mishra and secretary to chief minister Anil Mukim.

Nityanandam, who is currently Gujarat Police Housing Corporation MD, also declined to comment on Bhatt's affidavit.

"I would not like to react or comment at all to a statement that Mr Bhatt has made before the press or any authority," he said.

Two out of these - Swarna Kanta Verma and Ashok Narayan - pleaded loss of memory about the meeting while Chakravarti, Nityanandam, Pande and Mishra have denied that Modi ever gave such instruction
Pande and Mishra have been given post retirement postings by the Gujarat government.
Bhatt, on the other hand, has been claiming that everything that he has said in the affidavit is true and he was indeed present at the February 27, 2002 meeting.

"I filed an affidavit on 14th of this month (April, 2011) in the Supreme Court. I have gone on oath when recording this statement. This time the SIT summoned me under CrPC. I recorded my statement and my statement was recorded on March 23. Whatever I had to say, I have said in the affidavit to the Supreme Court. There is no question of resigning from the service. I have lot of tasks to do," said the police officer.

Bhatt claimed that he never revealed about the February 27, 2002 meeting because he was never summoned by any forum to appear.

"I was never summoned by any forum to appear before this. It was for the first time that I was summoned by SIT in 2009. I was an intelligence officer and was privy to a lot of information at that time," said Bhatt, who was the Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence, State Intelligence Bureau, Gandhinagar, from December 1999 to September 2002.

"All I am doing is keeping the truth. I am telling what I know as and when I am called and asked about. I am duty bound. I have taken a stand, I have given the statement under oath. I am not worried at all. I know I am giving out what is the truth," he said.

Gujarat was rocked by communal riots in 2002 that took place following the burning of the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, in which 59 kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh were killed. The train burning incident sparked off the riots in which over 1,000 people were killed.