The Weekend Leader - Disarming Bhatt?

Bhatt takes on Modi in ‘service weapons’ issue

03-October-2012

Vol 3 | Issue 39

Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who had accused Chief Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the 2002 communal riots, has questioned the state government’s order placing him under suspension for being in ‘unauthorized possession of service weapons.’

In August, the central review committee of union ministry of home affairs had rejected the state government’s proposal to extend Bhatt’s suspension beyond one year.

Sanjiv Bhatt

Forced to revoke his suspension, the state government continues to keep him under suspension citing two other cases against him.

Bhatt has responded by writing a letter to Modi. In a letter dated 3 Oct 2012, the 1988 batch IPS officer states that the Gujarat government had issued a suspension order on 7 August 2012, “the very day on which the decision of the Central Review Committee (refusing to extend his suspension) was communicated to the Home Department of the Government of Gujarat.”

Terming the order ‘half-baked,’ he alleges that the order had been “issued in apparent haste and with an obviously ulterior motive” and “was based on utterly flimsy and untenable grounds of my being in unauthorized possession of Service Weapons.”

In a strongly worded letter, Bhatt laments the lack of security cover for him and his family and accuses the state government of seeking to “irreparably jeopardize my security by continuously striving to even dispossess me of my service weapons.”

He states in the letter: “As conveyed to the Home Department on several occasions, I am required to undertake frequent road journeys across Gujarat to attend court and other proceedings.

“My repeated requests for provision of a Bullet Proof Car and an Escort Vehicle for my protection during all road journeys within the State of Gujarat (are) yet to receive any response from the Home Department.

“Similarly, all my requests for designating a Nodal Officer for coordinating the security arrangements for me and my family members as and when we are required to travel outside the State of Gujarat have also been conveniently ignored by the Home Department.”

He goes on to add: “There has also been no let-up in the efforts of the Home Department of the State Government to irreparably jeopardize my security by continuously striving to even dispossess me of my service weapons.

“In an unprecedented display of vindictive pettiness, the Home Department of the Government of Gujarat has now deviously sought to place me under renewed suspension on flimsy and fatuous grounds of being in possession of service weapons, which I am officially entitled to possess; especially so when the stewardship has been intentionally disregarding my repeated requests for provision of adequate and fool-proof categorized security cover for myself and my family members.”

Bhatt has appealed to Modi to direct the state home department “to forthwith desist from behaving in such petty and vindictive manner and refrain from taking any coercive steps or vindictive measure which would jeopardize my security as well as the safety and security of my family.” – TWL Bureau

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