Tarique Anwar, BeyondHeadlines
New Delhi: For the first time ever, former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s lawyer has spoken on camera reiterating what the IPS officer has said in his affidavit in the Supreme Court — alleging that the state government was shielding those accused in the 2002 Godhra riots. Bhatt’s lawyer, Iqbal Syed, also claimed that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) officers were leaking confidential evidence to the lawyers of the riot accused.
IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt, who has accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of misusing state machinery during 2002 post-Godhra riots, had alleged that SIT probe details on riot cases were leaked to a top law officer of the State government.
Bhatt, in his 19-page supplementary affidavit filed before the Supreme Court last week, alleged that someone from within the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was leaking sensitive and confidential details related to investigations conducted by it to Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta.
Bhatt, an Inspector General-rank officer, alleged in the affidavit that he had seen e-mails from the SIT probing the riots cases in the personal mail account of Mehta.
Mehta on his part lodged a complaint with the State cyber cell accusing Bhatt of hacking his e-mails, police said.
“A case has been registered against IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt after a complaint was lodged against him by the Additional Advocate General of Gujarat High Court accusing him of hacking his e-mails,” Joint Commissioner of Police of Sector-I Ajay Tomar said.
“An FIR has been registered (under the Information Technology Act-2008) at the Vastrapur police station, and investigations are underway,” another police official said.
Incidentally, Bhatt and Mehta have been family friends since long.
Mehta alleged that Bhatt hacked his e-mail and accessed it and passed on the information to others also.
“These communications contain my personal, official, and legal correspondences which are not only unauthorisedly seen by Bhatt but shared by him with others for ulterior motive, which, apart from being criminal offences, grossly violates my right of privacy,” Mehta said in the complaint.
“I have reasons to believe that he must have taken hard and soft copies of my emails and he is using the same out of contact for an ulterior motive and with an intention of tarnishing my reputation,” he said.
