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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Call records show probability of Bhatt's presence at riot meeting with Modi by Vidya Subrahmaniam

Call records show probability of Bhatt's presence at riot meeting with Modi by Vidya Subrahmaniam

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published Published on Nov 11, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 11, 2011

These lend weight to journalist's affidavit to Supreme Court on meeting with the police officer

The call records of Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt and former BBC correspondent Shubhranshu Chaudhary show they spoke to each other in Ahmedabad thrice on the evening of February 27, 2002, just before Mr. Bhatt says he went off to attend a meeting at the Gujarat Chief Minister's residence in which Narendra Modi allegedly asked police officers to turn a blind eye to Hindu rioters..

The first call, made at 7.25 p.m. was from Mr. Chaudhary to Mr. Bhatt and lasted less than a minute. Mr. Bhatt returned the call at 8.20 p.m. and Mr. Chaudhary called him again at 8.40 p.m. According to Mr. Chaudhary, he was approaching Mr. Bhatt's house and the 8.40 p.m. call was to get directions. The call (incoming and outgoing) was picked up by a cellphone tower which showed both men were in the vicinity of Prerna Tower, Vastrapur — not too far from Mr. Bhatt's house.

The physical proximity established is crucial because it lends weight to Mr. Chaudhary's own affidavit to the Supreme Court in which he said he was with Mr. Bhatt when he left for the Chief Minister's residence that night.

According to Mr. Bhatt, he was talking to Mr. Chaudhary when the Police Control Room called him on his landline, asking him to go to the Chief Minister's meeting. He said he was out jogging when Mr. Chaudhary called him the first time. The call was picked up by his attendant. Mr. Bhatt returned the call 8.20 p.m., which is when Mr. Chaudhary said he was coming over to meet him. The affidavit filed in the Supreme Court by Mr. Bhatt's driver, Tarachand Yadav, corresponds with this account. In his affidavit, Mr. Yadav said he had dropped Mr. Bhatt home in the evening after which he went for his jog.

Mr. Chaudhary told The Hindu that he felt duty-bound to bring this fact out in the interest of justice. He said he was travelling in the United States when he got news that Mr. Bhatt was trying to establish his presence at the February 27, 2002 meeting in Mr. Modi's residence: “I had lost touch with Sanjiv and so I contacted some of our common friends. Through one of them — Nidheesh Tyagi — I got his telephone number and also sent a message across to Sanjiv that I was willing to vouch for the fact that he cut short our meeting saying he had to attend the meeting at the Chief Minister's house.”

Mr. Tyagi corroborated Mr. Chaudhary's account. He said in May this year, he was chatting on the Internet with Mr. Chaudhary when the subject of Mr. Bhatt came up. Mr. Chaudhary instantly recalled his own meeting with Mr. Bhatt and asked Mr. Tyagi for the latter's phone number. He also asked Mr. Tyagi to convey to Mr. Bhatt that he was willing to place the events of February 27 on record.

The Hindu examined the e-mail exchanges between Mr. Bhatt and Mr. Chaudhary in May this year — just prior to the latter deciding to file the affidavit. The first of these exchanges shows that on May 7, 2011, Mr. Tyagi wrote to Mr. Bhatt attaching the transcript of his own chat with Mr. Chaudhary. In the attached chat, Mr. Chaudhary thanked Mr. Tyagi for Mr. Bhatt's telephone number and asked him to pass on the message that he met Mr. Bhatt on February 27 when he was about to “leave for the disputed meeting.” Having received the message, Mr. Bhatt wrote to Mr. Chaudhary on May 8: “Believe me, your offer is nothing less than a godsend. It will help the case in a big way.” Mr. Chaudhary wrote back: “Great to hear from you. I'm back in India next week and please let me know what I can do.”

Mr. Chaudhary returned to India on May 14. And on May 15, Mr. Bhatt sent him this mail: “I'm so glad that you remember our meeting after so many years. We are at a very critical juncture in this long-drawn struggle for bringing out the truth.”

Two things are clear from these records. Mr. Chaudhary came to Ahmedabad on February 27 evening, spoke to Mr. Bhatt and was certainly somewhere near Mr. Bhatt's house at 8.40 p.m. Secondly, the offer to go public with the events of the day came from Mr. Chaudhary. These are not enough to establish Mr. Bhatt's presence at the February 27 meeting at Mr. Modi's residence. But they point to the probability of his presence at the meeting. As Mr. Chaudhary told The Hindu: “I'm not a witness to Sanjiv's presence at the Chief Minister's meeting. But I recall clearly that he cut short our meeting saying he had to go to a special meeting at the Chief Minister's place.”

The Hindu, 12 November, 2011, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2619392.ece


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