Disgruntled officers of Gujarat govt need to be in dock for making false revelations on 2002 riots: SC

The Supreme Court Friday said disgruntled officers of the Gujarat government need to be in the dock for creating a sensation by making false revelations on the 2002 riots, reports PTI.

The Supreme Court Friday said disgruntled officers of the Gujarat government need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law for creating a sensation by making false revelations on the 2002 riots. The top court also said it finds force in the argument of the State that the testimony of Sanjiv Bhatt (then IPS officer), Haren Pandya (former Gujarat home minister), and R B Sreekumar (now retired IPS officer) was only to sensationalise and politicise the matters in issue, "although, replete with falsehood." Pandya was shot dead on March 26, 2003, near Law Garden in Ahmedabad during a morning walk.

The apex court said Bhatt and Pandya falsely claimed themselves to be eye-witnesses of the meeting in which utterances were allegedly made by the then Chief Minister and the Special Investigation Team has negated their claim.

“At the end of the day, it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create a sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge.

“The falsity of their claims had been fully exposed by the SIT after a thorough investigation,” a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said.

The apex court said the present proceedings (by Zakia Jafri) have been pursued for the last 16 years including with the audacity to question the integrity of every functionary involved in the process of exposing the ?devious stratagem adopted, to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design.

“As a matter of fact, all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with the law,” the bench also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar said.