By Nisar Ahmed Khan, for TwoCircles.net,
Beed (Maharashtra): Support is pouring in for Gujarat’s whistle-blower IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt from every nook and corner of the country. At a meeting held here some 500 KM from the state capital Mumbai, Muslim groups, social and political activists have demanded immediate release and safety of Sanjiv Bhatt who was put behind the bar by Gujarat government in retaliation for exposing the culpability of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2002 anti- Muslim pogrom.
Submitting a memorandum to Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, through the District Collector of Beed, they urged the center to intervene into the matter and to ensure safety and security of Bhatt and his family. The memorandum has pointed that Bhatt’s arrest is arbitrary and unconstitutional that warrants center’s immediate intervention.
A delegation of Beed Muslims handing over memorandum to Beed Collector
The arrest was meant to coerce upright and duty-conscious officer who dared to expose the complicity of Modi in anti- Muslim riots and who is also an important witness in the Zakia Ahsan Jafri and CJP criminal complaint against chief minister Narendra Modi and 61 others, they said.
Condemning the arrest of Bhatt, speaker after speaker said under Modi, Gujarat has become a fascist state and the way Bhatt was arrested is nothing but to intimidate other officers not open their mouth against Modi.
Syed Shafeeq Hashmi, Dist. president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Beed pointed that in his affidavit to the Supreme Court, Bhatt had testified to criminal and un-Constitutional instructions being issued by Modi at a late-night meeting of 27.2.2002 the day of the Godhra incident. In his statements before the SC-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) he also provided documentary evidence about Modi’s abdication of responsibility on 28.2.2002 the day attacks on Gulberg Society and Naroda Patia in Ahmedabad were in full swing. Recently, he also filed a affidavit in the Gujarat High Court in which he mentioned both Modi and Amit Shah, then MoS Home had tried to intimidate and pressurize him into not giving facts and evidence in the possession of the State Intelligence Bureau related to the assassination of former MoS Revenue Haren Pandya. The CBI investigation into the Pandya assassination has been recently severely criticized by the Gujarat High Court. Hashmi said it was clear case of vendetta.
A delegation comprising Tameer-e-Milat, SIO, MPJ, Jamaat-e-Islami, Ulema Council, CPI, NCP, Congress, Journalists and writers met the District Collector and handed over the memorandum who assured that it would be sent immediately to the Union Minister.
(Nisar Ahmed Khan (N. Javed) is Independent Journalist & activist based in Beed)