Express news service Posted online: Thu Jan 05 2012, 03:50 hrs
Ahmedabad : Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has produced yet another piece of ‘evidence’ before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing into the 2002 post-Godhra riots and the Nanavati-Mehta Commission.

Bhatt has produced a copy of an intelligence alert, which indicates that it was after a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Narendra Modi that the state government decided to bring the bodies of all the kar sevaks killed on the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, to Ahmedabad. He had sent the alert on behalf of the additional DGP (intelligence) to the commissioner of police Ahmedabad, dated February 27, 2002, the day of the carnage.

The purported intelligence alert annexed to his letter to the Commission refers to the decision to bring the bodies under police escort to Ahmedabad, and warns of widespread communal violence since the VHP and Bajrang Dal cadres were being mobilised to enforce the bandh call the following day.

The letter says the bodies of kar sevaks were to be brought to Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. The parading of these burnt bodies has been blamed for sparking off riots the next day.

He has annexed this letter as a sample, with a request to the Commission to issue orders to him to file a comprehensive affidavit to bring out more such evidence under the expanded terms of references of the Commission, which cover roles of the chief minister and council of ministers.

Copies of this intelligence input (D2/2-COM/ ALERT/100/2002) marked ‘priority’ by Bhatt, who was then the deputy commissioner of intelligence, had also been sent to the offices of chief minister, minister of state for home and DGP. The letter seems to be referring to same meeting held at Modi’s residence on February 27 wherein, Bhatt has claimed, the CM wanted to allow Hindus to vent their anger.

The letter says, “Pursuant to the meeting held by the CM, it has become clear that the state government wishes to go ahead with the decision of bringing the dead bodies of the Kar Sevaks to Ahmedabad by road under police escort.”

The officer has also reiterated that the documents he has requisitioned from government files be provided to him. “It is reiterated that documents submitted by me to the SIT as well as other documents which would be available with the State Intelligence Bureau would clearly reveal the dubious role and criminal conduct of the then Chief Minister and/or other Ministers in his council of Ministers, Police Officers and other individuals and organisations with respect to the references (a) to (e) of the widened Terms of Reference. I am aware of the said fact as many such highly incriminating documents were either authored by me or had come to my notice during my tenure as Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence in-charge of Internal Security in the year 2002,” Bhatt says in his letter to the Commission.

He requested the Commission to ensure that crucial documents and records of the state IB are not destroyed and the government should give him the relevant records that he has requested for.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/896006/