Ahmedabad: Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt on Thursday questioned intentions of Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) for not putting the evidence
provided by him with regard to Godhra carnage case, on record of the trial court, which convicted 31 persons last year.
Bhatt alleged that if SIT had used the phone call records
that he had collected while he was DCP with the State
Intelligence Bureau (SIB), for prosecuting the accused, it
would have brought out the fact that Godhra train burning
incident was unlikely to have been premeditated, thereby
demolishing the conspiracy theory.
"In November 2009, during course of my deposition in
connection with an enquiry entrusted to SIT by the SC, I had
provided seven original floppies containing phone call records
of all the AT&T and Celforce mobile phones operating in Godhra
on 26th and 27th February 2002 to A K Malhotra, Member-SIT,"
Bhatt said adding it was provided with a request to share the
same with the team investigating Godhra train burning
incident.
"But when I asked the SIT member (Malhotra) in March
2011 if the data provided by me was used by them, he said they
were yet to see the data," Bhatt claimed.
"This action of theirs puts question mark on their
intentions on using the data provided to them," he added.
Bhatt was of the opinion that a proper analysis of the
said data would have "brought out the fact that the Godhra
incident was unlikely to have been premeditated, thereby
demolishing the so-called conspiracy theory."
In March last year, a trial court had awarded death
penalty to 11 persons and life imprisonment to 20 others, and
acquitted 63 others in the Godhra carnage case.
The suspended IPS officer has been approached by a
lawyer representing some of the convicts of the Godhra carnage
case, who have appealed against the verdict of trial court in
the High court. He wants to use the phone call data for their
defence.
The lawyer has sought the phone call data which was
submitted to the SIT. Bhatt has in a letter to the lawyer
asked him to approach the SIT as the original record is with
the agency.
PTI
