Sanjeev Bhatt

Ahmedabad, April 23: Gujarat IPS officer Sanjeev Rajendra Bhatt is “ready to confront” Narendra Modi or anyone else who denies he was at the February 27, 2002, meeting where the chief minister allegedly asked police to go soft on rioters.

His then driver Tara Chand Yadav today confirmed Bhatt’s presence at Modi’s home that night, though the opposite claim was made by the man who was state police chief during the 2002 riots, K. Chakravarti.

“I am ready to confront any former DGP or other official, even the chief minister, on this issue,” Bhatt, the principal of the State Reserve Police training centre in Junagadh, told The Telegraph.

Tara Chand said that not only had Bhatt gone to Modi’s bungalow, but he probably went there with Chakravarti himself in the then DGP’s car.

“It was the car of the DGP or additional DGP.... Sir (Bhatt) stepped out of our car and sat in that car. K.D. Pant was standing there with files. Sir waved towards him and said something that I couldn’t understand. So I asked Pant, ‘Where do we have to go?’ He (Pant) told me to follow the car,” the driver was quoted by PTI.

The agency report did not clarify who Pant was. Tara Chand added: “Ahead of it (my car) there were four or five vehicles. I started following those cars. On following (them), we reached the chief minister’s house. Sir stayed there for around 25 to 30 minutes.”

Bhatt has told the Supreme Court in an affidavit that at the meeting, he heard Modi tell top officials to “let Hindus vent their anger” and that “Muslims (should) be taught a lesson”.

But Chakravarti today told a TV channel in Mumbai, where he lives in retirement: “He (Bhatt) was not present in that particular meeting held with the chief minister and other high-ranking officials. I have told this to the special investigation team (of apex court-appointed riot investigators) during my deposition.”

Bhatt said: “There is nothing new in what he is saying. He has been saying for a long time that I was not present at the meeting, so it is hardly surprising.”

The 1988-batch IPS officer added that since the matter was before the Supreme Court, “it is for the court to work out a mechanism to find the truth”.

Chakravarti claimed that Bhatt was too junior to be at the meeting. Bhatt, who was then deputy commissioner with the state Intelligence Bureau, says he was substituting for his senior G.C. Raigar who was not in town.

Although there are no official records of the meeting’s minutes, Bhatt has indicated that as an intelligence officer he has enough material to establish that he was at the meeting.

After Bhatt made his allegations against Modi before the special investigation team (SIT), the chief minister had told it in March last year that the officer was not at the meeting. Other senior officials had made the same claim to the SIT or said they did not remember if he was there.

The SIT report says only seven officials were present at the late-night discussions, according to a media report published a few months ago that the SIT did not contradict.

The seven are (by their then designations): Chakravarti, acting chief secretary S.K. Verma, additional chief secretary (home) Ashok Narayan, Ahmedabad city police chief P.C. Pande, secretary (home) K. Nityanandam, principal secretary to chief minister P.K. Mishra and additional chief secretary Anil Mukim.

Chakravarti, Pande and Mishra toed the official line at their depositions before the Nanavati Commission and the SIT and were amply rewarded during their careers. They are all retired now.

“We don’t expect any of these people to speak the truth,” said retired DGP R.B. Sreekumar, who was additional DGP during the riots. Sreekumar has been making the same allegations against Modi as Bhatt, and was sidelined in the police as a consequence.

Advocate Mukul Sinha, who had cross-examined Chakravarti before the Nanavati Commission on behalf of the riot victims, said the officer had “denied everything” about Modi’s role in the violence.

“I feel that before the chief minister, Chakravarti should be prosecuted because he failed to perform his constitutional duty as state police chief,” Sinha said.