By TCN News,
New Delhi: The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) has expressed grave concern over the warrant issued against Gujarat IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 21 year old case. Bhatt, through an affidavit in the Supreme Court, had earlier accused chief minister Narendra Modi for the 2002 pogrom.
Bhatt is well known as the IPS Officer who has alleged that he was a witness to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s complicity in the violence against Muslims in the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, that claimed 2000 lives and rendered thousands of families homeless.
The case, for which the warrant against Bhatt has been issued, pertains to the death of an individual in a communal riot in 1990, in which an FIR was filed against the police including Mr. Bhatt. The state government sought to get a closure on the case in 1995. Since the court ruled for prosecution, the state filed a petition for revision in 1996.
“The fact that the state government withdrew its revision petition the day Sanjiv Bhatt moved the Supreme Court against Modi smacks of a witch hunt against an upright police officer who has risked his career to bring the truth about the Gujarat carnage to light”, said Mr. Shaheen Khateeb, President, IAMC. “Such abuse of power cannot be allowed to go unchallenged in a democracy”, added Mr. Khateeb.
Sanjiv Bhatt has faced tremendous pressure, including threats to his life, ever since he filed an affidavit with the Supreme Court, stating that he was a witness to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi telling top officers to allow Hindus to vent their anger after the incident at Godhra. While Modi’s complicity in the Gujarat pogrom is common knowledge, this was the first time a high ranking police officer had come forward as an eye witness to Modi’s complicity.
IAMC has called upon the state government to desist from carrying out its vindictive agenda against IPS Officer Bhatt and to ensure that the revision petition it had withdrawn, in the 1990 case against Bhatt, is filed again.
Indian-American Muslim Council (formerly Indian Muslim Council-USA) is the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States with 10 chapters across the nation. For more information please visit our new website at:http://www.iamc.com