After giving a clean chit to the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged role in the post-Godhra Train Burning riots, the Nanavati-Mehta commission report also busted the tainted, jailed ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s big lie against Prime Minister Narendra Modi (then Gujarat’s Chief Minister).
The report, as mentioned by Times Of India, concluded that the former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt who is currently serving life imprisonment in a custodial death case had lied and made up stories of him attending a meeting at the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s residence on February 27, 2002.
Bhatt, who became a big face of the anti-Modi lobby, alleged in 2011 that during the 2002 post-Godhra riots, the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi had called a meeting at his residence on 27 February 2002 to “let Hindus vent out their anger against Muslims so that repeat of Godhra-like incident never happens in the state”.
Bhatt, in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, had claimed that this meeting took place following the Sabarmati Express burning incident in which 59 Ayodhya Kar Sevaks had died.
At the time of the alleged meeting, Bhatt was the deputy commissioner in the state intelligence bureau. He further stated in the affidavit that the meeting was attended by eight top police officers. Bhatt also alleged that the SIT constituted to probe the riots was trying to protect the Gujarat government.
The Nanavati-Mehta commission report has, however, rubbished Bhatt’s allegations saying that he used a false document, a fax message, to support his presence at the meeting. “On consideration of the evidence, it clearly appears that Bhatt is not telling the truth with regards to what happened in the meeting held on February 27, 2002, at the CM’s residence. Claims made by him of being present in the meeting appear to false”, stated the second part of the report of the ‘Commission of Inquiry’ by Justice G T Nanavati and Justice Akshay Mehta.
The report adds that Bhatt’s claims about chief minister Modi’s statements were a story made up by him and “deserve to be discarded as false”.
The commission stated that the copy of the fax message, which Bhatt had used to claim he was present in the February 27, 2002 meeting with the then Gujarat CM Modi, was, in fact, sent on March 2, 2002, by one PP Upadhyay, about an incident in Pandarva, Panchmahal.
Bhatt had claimed that he had reached to the meeting accompanying K Chakravarthy, the then Gujarat DGP in his car. However, Chakravarty had refuted Bhatt’s claim.
This was the second part of the Nanavati-Mehta Commission report that was tabled. The first part was submitted in 2008 and covered the Godhra train burning incident. It had concluded that the said incident was part of a “planned conspiracy”. The first part, too, had given a clean chit to Narendra Modi.
Sanjiv Bhatt was a part of the brigade which has spread numerous canards over the years regarding the state government’s alleged involvement in the riots. While Bhatt has in these years enjoyed much media attention over his sensational allegations, his lie was finally caught by the Nanavati-Mehta report tabled at the Gujarat assembly yesterday.
Notably, former cop Sajiv Bhatt was arrested by the Gujarat CID over a 1998 case of planting drugs. The Palanpur Drug planting case pertains to an incident in 1998 when Sanjiv Bhatt was serving as the DCP of Banaskantha. He was then accused of trying to frame lawyer Sumersingh Rajpurohit in a fake narcotics case under Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act by planting 1.25 kg opium in a hotel room in Palanpur in Banaskantha district in 1996.
Bhatt who had gained media attention and sympathy of the anti-Modi brigade for his propaganda agaisnt the PM, had been caught several times spreading fake news to help his agenda.
