Ahmedabad: The driver of IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt, who has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court implicating Narendra Modi in the post-Godhra riots, today said Bhatt had gone to the residence of the chief minister on February 27, 2002 when the meeting of the officials was held.
Incidentally, K Chakrabarthi, the Gujarat's director general of police (DGP) at the time of post-Godhra riots, has said that Bhatt was "not present" in the meeting with the chief minister held on February 27, 2002.
"It was the car of DGP or additional DGP, when sir (Bhatt) stepped out from our car and sat in that car. KD Pant was standing there with files. Sir, by waving a hand towards him, said something (which)I couldn't understand so I asked Pant where we had to go, he (Pant) told me to follow the car," Tarachand Yadav, driver of Sanjeev Bhatt, said.
"Our car was empty and ahead of it there were four or five vehicles and I started following those cars. On following the car we reached the chief minister's house. It was around 10:30am or 10:45am. Sir stayed there for around 25 to 30 minutes," Yadav said.
Bhatt has filed an affidavit in Supreme Court in connection with the Zakia Jaffery case alleging complicity on part of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 communal clashes.
Bhatt stated in his affidavit that the chief minister in the meeting held on February 27, 2002 expressed that "Hindus be allowed to vent out their anger".
Bhatt had been extensively questioned by the SIT headed by former CBI director RK Raghavan for three days on March 21, 22 and 23 this year, in connection with the complaint of Zakia Jafri, wife of slain Congress MP Ahsan Jafri.
Zakia, in her complaint, has alleged that Modi and 62 others, including his cabinet colleagues, police officials and senior bureaucrats aided and abetted the riots which left over 1,000 people dead across the state.
She had further alleged that between February and May 2002 there was a "deliberate and intentional failure" of the state government to protect the life and property of innocents.
Bhatt, a 1988 batch IPS officer was posted as DCP at the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) during the 2002 riots. He is presently posted as the principal of the State Reserve Police (SRP) training centre in Junagadh district.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, April 23, 2011, 21:57