The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC - http://www.iamc.com), an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos, has expressed grave concern over the warrant issued against IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 21-year-old case.
Mr. Sanjiv Bhatt is well known as the IPS Officer who has alleged that he was a witness to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s complicity in the violence against Muslims in the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, that claimed 2000 lives and rendered thousands of families homeless.
The case, for which the warrant against Mr. Bhatt has been issued, pertains to the death of an individual in a communal riot in 1990, in which an FIR was filed against the police including Mr. Bhatt. The state government sought to get a closure of the case in 1995. Since the court ruled for prosecution, the state filed a petition for revision in 1996.
“The fact that the state government withdrew its revision petition the day Sanjiv Bhatt moved the Supreme Court against Modi smacks of a witch hunt against an upright police officer who has risked his career to bring the truth about the Gujarat carnage to light”, said Mr. Shaheen Khateeb, President, IAMC. “Such abuse of power cannot be allowed to go unchallenged in a democracy”, added Mr. Khateeb.
Sanjiv Bhatt has faced tremendous pressure, including threats to his life, ever since he filed an affidavit with the Supreme Court, stating that he was a witness to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi telling top officers to allow Hindus to vent their anger after the incident at Godhra.
While Modi’s complicity in the Gujarat pogrom is common knowledge, it was the first time a high ranking police officer had come forward as an eye witness to Modi’s complicity.
IAMC has called upon the state government to desist from carrying out its vindictive agenda against IPS Officer Bhatt and to ensure that the revision petition it had withdrawn in the 1990 case against Bhatt, is filed again.
Indian-American Muslim Council (formerly Indian Muslim Council-USA) is the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States with 10 chapters across the nation.
