Ahmedabad: Senior IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt,
who has been locked in a public confrontation with the Gujarat
government over 2002 post-Godhra riots, was suspended on Monday.
The Narendra Modi government ordered the suspension of
the Inspector General-rank officer with immediate effect on
the grounds that his conduct was unbecoming of an IPS officer.
A letter from the state Home department was handed over
to Bhatt at his residence, an official said.
"They(government) have suspended me with immediate
effect. They can do anything they want," Bhatt told PTI after
receiving the suspension letter. Bhatt is currently the
Principal of SRP Training school at Junagadh.
The specific reasons cited against Bhatt was
unauthorised absence of duty, non-appearance before a
departmental panel and alleged misuse of official vehicle.
Bhatt, who has earlier accused Modi of misusing state
machinery during post-Godhra riots, alleged recently that SIT
probe details on riots cases were leaked to a top law officer
of the state government. He had also accused Modi of asking
cops to ignore calls for help from Muslims during the riots.
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 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 last Friday accusing Bhatt of hacking his e-mails.
"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," according to Joint Commissioner
of Police of sector-I Ajay Tomar.
"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.
Bhatt had filed a petition in the Supreme Court a
couple of months back accusing Modi of misusing state
machinery against Muslims during the post-Godhra riots.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, August 09, 2011, 00:04