By IANS,
Ahmedabad: Arrested Gujarat Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife Shweta Saturday said her husband’s life was under threat and she was not being allowed to meet him even as a second raid was conducted at his home.
In a letter to top police and government officials, Shweta said her husband was “surprisingly shifted to the city crime branch, which has bad reputation of fake encounters”.
Meanwhile, a second raid was conducted at the suspended IPS officer’s Ahmedabad house. The first raid was conducted Friday evening.
Talking to a news channel later, Shweta said it felt “bad” the way he was being treated after serving the police force for years.
“Police have asked for 14 days’ remand, why? My basic question is why is he being treated as a common criminal? He is such a big officer and what has he done? Just spoken the truth,” she said.
Sanjiv Bhatt came in the eye of storm after he filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court implicating Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 communal riots.
He was arrested Friday for allegedly threatening a policeman and making him sign a false affidavit about a high-level meeting called by Modi Feb 27, 2002.
Shweta said that neither she nor their lawyer was being allowed to meet Bhatt or talk to him.
“They are not letting me talk to Sanjiv or meet him. I am tense since yesterday (Friday)… have been sitting through the night…” she said, “I don’t even know if he is ok or not”.
She also accused the police and administration of ill-treating her and her family.
“They came to our home and searched everything so badly. Some 35-40 people… it feels so bad, we were serving these people for so many years. It feels very bad… at least the family should be treated with dignity,” she said.
The police have, however, denied this.
“There is no threat to Sanjiv’s life. He has been kept in Crime Branch office,” Ahmedabad Police Commissioner Sudesh Sinha said, reacting to Shweta’s letter.
He said lawyers were not allowed to meet their clients within 24 hours of custody. “In 99.99 percent of the cases, lawyers are not allowed to meet their clients within 24 hours of custody, but if there is a request, we do consider them,” he said.
The commissioner added Bhatt was arrested as police had “evidence against him”.