By IANS,
New Delhi/Ahmedabad : Senior Gujarat police officer Sanjiv Bhatt has blamed Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the 2002 “communal carnage”, and said he wanted Muslims to be taught “a lesson” for the train burning in Godhra that left 59 Kar Sevaks dead and that Hindus should “be allowed to vent out their anger”.
Bhatt has told the Supreme Court that despite his telling the apex court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) that the post-Godhra riots were orchestrated at the instance of Modi, it did noting to investigate the angle and chose to turn a blind eye to it.
In his affidavit, filed before the apex court hearing the post-Godhra Gujarat riot cases, Bhatt said he had told the SIT that they (administration and police) were told by Chief Minister Modi that “this time the situation warranted that the Muslims be taught a lesson to ensure that such incidents do not occur ever again”.
Bhatt said the top officials of the state administration and police were told this in the course of the late night meeting held at the chief minister’s residence on Feb 27, 2002. Bhatt is currently posted as the principal of the State Reserve Police Training Centre based at Junagadh.
In the Godhra train coach burning, 59 Kar Sevaks returning from Ayodhya were killed after fire engulfed the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway station on the morning of Feb 27, 2002. The incident sparked widespread anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, inviting allegations that they were abetted by the state government. Over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the riots.
Bhatt in his affidavit said he had told the SIT that Chief Minister Modi took the position even though he was cautioned that bringing the bodies of the Kar Sevaks to Ahmedabad coupled with a bandh call given by BJP could spark communal riots and Gujarat police were not adequately equipped to deal with such a situation.
Bhatt said he had told the SIT that Modi responded by saying “the bandh call had already been given and the party (BJP) had decided to support the same, as incidents like burning of Kar Sevaks at Godhra could not be tolerated”.
The SIT was told that Modi “further impressed upon the gathering that for far too long the Gujarat police had been following the principle of balancing the actions against Hindus and Muslims while dealing with communal riots in Gujarat”.
Modi was quoted as having said that “emotions were running very high amongst the Hindus and it was imperative that they be allowed to vent out their anger”.
Bhatt told the SIT that the effect of these directions by the chief minister was widely manifested in the half-hearted approach and the evident lack of determination on the part of the police while dealing with the widespread incidents of orchestrated violence during the state-sponsored Gujarat bandh on Feb 28, 2002.
Having pointed out that instructions were issued by the chief minister during a late night meeting on Feb 27, 2002, and that he informed the SIT about it, Bhatt told the apex court about certain “disquieting aspects and inadequacies in the manner and approach of the SIT” that he personally experienced in the course of his interaction with it.
He said in his affidavit that the investigating team “appears to be disinclined to follow up these important leads (given by him) in the course of their investigation”.
He said that after he was called by the SIT to appear before it in connection with its investigation, he was contacted by a high ranking officer who tried to brief him prior to interaction with the SIT.
Bhatt said that despite his professional constraints as an intelligence officer, he shared substantial information with the SIT and told the investigating agency that he was willing to share all the information that was with him.
He said that confidentiality of his deposition before the SIT was breached and everything he had said, including the signed deposition, were known to the top echelons of the Gujarat government and as a result “I was visited and continue to be visited with unpleasant consequences”.
Bhatt, who joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1988, said since he had been deposing before the SIT, he has fears for his own safety and that of his family.
He asked the Supreme Court to provide fool-proof security for himself and his family members.
He said he had told the SIT “that many serious incidents of communal violence, including the carnage at Gulberg Society, could have been easily prevented by firm and determined action on the part of the police”.
Bhatt’s affidavit is in the context of the petition filed in the Supreme Court by Zakia Ahsan Jafri, widow of a former Congress MP who was burnt to death with many others at the Gulberg Housing Society by a mob.
Bhatt alleged that the SIT was becoming a party to the “ongoing cover-up operation in Gujarat”.
Bhatt said that the selective leakage of confidential information he had provided to the SIT had “further jeoparized the safety and security of my family members”.
“I have serious and well founded apprehensions regarding my own safety and the safety and security of my family.”