He had said that he was present at a meeting on February 27, 2002, in which Modi had told his officials to let Hindus vent their ire on Muslims soon after the Sabarmati Express deaths.
Bhatt said the six-page suspension order, which was served on him late tonight, chiefly cites “unauthorised absence’’ from duty as the ground for the action.
Haath jin mein ho junoon katate nahin talvaar se
Sar jo uth jaate hain vo jhukte nahin lalkaar se
Bhatt recite the couplet after his suspension. “It is another self-goal by the state government. I will take necessary legal steps after talking to lawyers tomorrow,’’ he said, adding that he had taken authorised leave on personal grounds.
Bhatt, who holds the rank of DIG, was posted as the principal of the special reserve police training school in Junagadh.
The state DGP had earlier issued a memo to Bhatt, asserting that his leave was unauthorised and ordering him to take government permission first before appearing before any court or commission.
In his supplementary affidavit filed before the Supreme Court last week, Bhatt had alleged that someone from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was leaking sensitive and confidential details to Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta.
Bhat sheds fresh light on riot cases
Meanwhile in a fresh affidavit before the Supreme Court, Sanjiv Bhatt has indicated that the editor-in-chief of the daily The Hindu, N Ram had offered to brief an unidentified person on matters related to the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre, on a request from RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy.
The copy of email, attached as an annexure in Bhatt’s supplementary affidavit, Gurumurthy writes to Ram (at the mail ids nram@thehindu.co.in and nram.thehindu@gmail.com) on February 17, 2010: “Dear Ram, This refers to our telephonic talk after Cho (Cho Ramaswamy, editor of Tamil magazine Thuglak) spoke to you and me. Here is the note I would like you to go through so that you understand before you talk to the person.”
In the two-page note attached to the mail, Gurumurthy praised Raghavan’s confidential reports that had already been submitted to the SC and trashed Zakia Jaffri, widow of Ehsan Jaffri for trying to get a case registered against Modi and 62 others including top government officials. The SC had referred Jaffri’s case to the SIT for investigations.
Sixty-nine people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri were killed in Gulberg Society during the Gujarat riots.
The SC appointed amicus curiae to review whether the SIT had acted with any bias.
Ram told a newspaper that he did not recall any such exchange with Gurumurthy. Ram however told HT that Raghvan is a family friend. “He is a close family friend and writes for our publications, but we never discussed anything about the Gujarat riots,” he told the newspaper.