SDPI delegation meets Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife, assures all help

The Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has assured Mrs. Shewta Bhatt, wife of Sanjiv Bhatt, the sacked IPS officer who has been awarded lifer for a custodial death nearly 30 years ago, for all help legal and otherwise in her battle against injustice meted out to her husband.

The assurance was extended to Mrs. Bhatt when a delegation of SDPI led by its national general secretary Mohammad Shafi met her in Ahmadabad on Wednesday. The other members of the delegation were Gujarat secretaries Ikramuddin Shaikh & Farooq Ansari and Adv. Faisal.

Shafi later said that this case seems to smell suspiciously of vendetta politics! “I am of the opinion that the higher courts would take a diametrically opposite view of the case and he will walk free!” Does establishment in power believe this man has been broken or still government would hunt for another case or explicit punishment to satisfy their thrust of vendetta?

He said that it seems that Sanjiv Bhatt is paying huge price for the bold and principled stand he had taken. He was suspended and subsequently removed from his job. He was arrested and released on bail in 2011. Gujarat government had tried to keep him behind bars objecting his bail. He was again arrested in September 2018 in connection with a 1996 drug planting case and has been behind bars ever since.

Clearly he is paying a price for his integrity, steadfastness, and fearlessness. He dared to speak the truth and stood up against the false and the evil. The Muslims and other minorities must thank him and support him for his courage and integrity. 

The court-appointed amicus curiae who examined the report of the Special Investigation Team, (SIT), which too was constituted by the court, but was alleged to be heavily biased in favour of Narendra Modi, had opined that there was enough evidence in the report to prosecute Modi. But the SIT chief, R K Raghavan unilaterally over-ruled it 

It may be recalled here that Sanjiv Bhatt had filed an affidavit in 2011 in the Supreme Court stating that while he was serving as the Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence in the Gujarat State Intelligence Bureau, in the wake of Godhra train tragedy, the then Chief Minister had instructed top police officials in the state to allow Hindu mobs to vent their anger on Muslims. He had also claimed that his concern about the spread violence and the threat to the life of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri was also ignored by the state government. Bhatt had also accused before the Supreme Court appointed SIT formed to probe the communal carnage, of covering up a larger conspiracy.

“What an irony! Those who needed to get the life terms are enjoying life to the brim at the cost of public exchequer”, Shafi exclaimed.