New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Social activists Saturday termed the arrest of Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt as ‘vindictive’ and charged the Gujarat government with silencing the witnesses who stood against it in the 2002 communal riots.
‘Sanjiv Bhatt stood up and tried to speak about the role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and now the government is harassing his family and him,’ said social activist Teesta Setalvad here.
‘We strongly condemn the vindictive action of the Gujarat government in arresting Sanjiv Bhatt..(it) is nothing short of an attempt to intimidate an important witness… against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 61 others,’ said Setalvad of the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), an NGO.
The CJP and Zakia Ahsan Jafri, the widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri killed in the Gulberg Housing Society carnage in Ahmedabad during the 2002 communal riots, filed the complaint against Modi and 61 others. Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court implicating Modi in the 2002 riots.
‘Sanjeev Bhatt was the one who stood up against the system. The government’s real and fascist face has got exposed,’ said National Advisory Council member Harsh Mander at press conference here.
‘It’s a deliberate attempt from the government to send down a clear message of dire consequences to the witnesses in the 2002 pogrom,’ said Setalvad.
Bhatt was arrested Friday for allegedly threatening a policeman and making him sign a false affidavit.
— Indo-Asian News Service
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