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Gujarat riots: 'So what if words were spoken within 4 walls?'
-Express News Service

The Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has concluded that even if Narendra Modi gave an illegal verbal instruction to allow Hindus to “vent their anger” after the Godhra carnage, it was not an offence.

“...The interpretations made on alleged illegal instructions given by the Chief Minister by (police officers) Shri R B Sreekumar and Shri Sanjiv Bhatt, appear to be without any basis. Further, even if such allegations are believed for sake of argument, mere statement of alleged words in the four walls of a room does not constitute any offence,” the SIT has said on page 241 of its final report.

The report, signed by investigating officer Himanshu Shukla, who is a DCP at the Ahmedabad Crime Branch, was made public on Monday.

Suspended DIG Sanjiv Bhatt was the first government officer who claimed to the SIT that he was present at the meeting at Modi’s residence, and had heard him give the illegal orders.

Before him, Sreekumar, a former chief of Gujarat Police, had said in his affidavit before the Nanavati Commission that the then DGP K Chakravarthi had told him on February 28, 2002, that the chief minister had said at the meeting, “In communal riots police takes action against Hindus and Muslims on one-to-one basis. This will not do now — allow Hindus to give vent to their anger”. Chakravarthi denied to the SIT that he said this to Sreekumar.

The SIT says that Bhatt’s version of the same meeting quotes Modi as saying “that for too long the Gujarat Police had been following the principle of balancing the actions against the Hindus and Muslims while dealing with the communal riots in Gujarat. This time the situation warranted that the Muslims be taught a lesson to ensure that such incidents do not recur again. The chief minister Shri Narendra Modi expressed the view that the emotions were running very high amongst the Hindus and it was imperative that they be allowed to vent out their anger”.

The SIT concludes that this was an “improved” version over what Bhatt had told the agency earlier and was, therefore, not believable.

The SIT has not only junked Bhatt’s evidence completely, it has also remarked that the alerts that he faxed to the home ministry, bureaucrats, and other police officers on the communal disturbances were “bogus”.

The report says: “The oral and documentary evidence available on record would therefore conclusively prove that these fax messages now produced by Shri Bhatt have been fabricated, subsequently with an ulterior motive.”

On June 22, 2011, the Gujarat government forwarded to the SIT a set of emails exchanged between Bhatt and some individuals in April and May, 2011. These were to demonstrate that Bhatt was in constant touch with Gujarat Congress leaders Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia, and some NGOs.

A summary by the SIT says: “(Activist) Ms Teesta Setalwad, her lawyer Shri Mihir Desai and Journalist Shri Manoj Mitta of Times of India were in constant touch with Shri Sanjiv Bhatt, IPS and were instrumental in arranging/drafting of the affidavit for filing the same in the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”

After 11 such summaries, the SIT concludes: “This would go to show that Shri Sanjiv Bhatt had been colluding with the persons with vested interests to see that some kind of charge sheet is filed against Shri Narendra Modi and others.”

Oddly, even though the SIT — and amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran — dismissed Sreekumar’s evidence as “hearsay”, it used an interview given by Sreekumar to Star News on April 22, 2011 to prove Bhatt wrong.

Sreekumar told the channel that Bhatt had not informed him that he had attended the meeting at the chief minister’s residence on February 27, 2002, and had also not given this input when he (Sreekumar) filed his affidavit before the Nanavati Commission.

No officer present at the meeting confirmed Bhatt’s presence there — except Bhatt’s fellow IPS officer Rahul Sharma, who based it on the location of Bhatt’s cellphone.

The SIT has concluded that Bhatt has a grudge against the Modi government because of several service-related issues, and his evidence is, therefore, not believable. It has also raised questions over Bhatt’s silence for nine years after the riots.