Ahmedabad:
After spending two nights at the Sabarmati Jail, arrested IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt will apply for bail in an Ahmedabad court today. He was sent to judicial custody on Saturday.
On Friday, a Metropolitan Court had rejected the police's plea which sought seven-day custody of the police officer - a development that's seen as an embarrassment for the Modi government.
The senior cop, viewed by many as a whistleblower, has accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the riots that ravaged the state in 2002. He was arrested on Friday night in Gandhinagar following a complaint of abducting and forcefully recording the statement of a constable. The statement, in question, reportedly backs Mr Bhatt's allegations against the Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, politics over Bhatt who filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court implicating Mr Modi in the riots continues with the Congress and the BJP slamming each other.
On Sunday, senior Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela visited Bhatt's wife and offered support.
"The BJP government, I think, is like Hitler. They put their own IPS officers in jail. If somebody wants to speak the truth, he is punished for it. It violates Gandhiji's ideologies in Gujarat. I condemn the action. Law will take its own course. For years, they are harassing the people who are concerned, to the point that even the family is being dragged into it. The police department is acting completely against the norm and we condemn that as well. It's not right and this is not a political issue," he said after meeting the family.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley has, however, said that Mr Bhatt has not been arrested for criticism but for crime.
Mr Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court this year alleging that Mr Modi had, in a meeting on February 27, 2002, asked officials not to act against rioters during the riots that year. He had added that his allegations could be backed up by head constable KD Pant who was also part of those meetings. But Mr Pant has alleged that Mr Bhatt forced him to back his allegations on record against Narendra Modi. He further alleged that Mr Bhatt had threatened him and made him sign a false affidavit with regard to the meeting. In fact, it is on Mr Pant's complaint that the IPS officer was arrested.
But, Mr Bhatt told the court that constable Pant had, during this year, constantly changed his statement pertaining to the events that transpired on February 27, 2002. In April this year, Mr Pant told the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) that he couldn't recall the events that occurred on February 27, 2002, the day Mr Modi allegedly held the meeting. In mid-June, he changed his version, telling the Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran that he accompanied Mr Bhatt to the Chief Minister's residence. Days later, he went back on his statement, saying he couldn't recall anything. After these flip-flops, constable Pant, on July 7, finally told the SIT that his relatives reminded him that he went to Mumbai for some work at the French Embassy on the said controversial day. He also, all of a sudden, could even recollect the number of the car and the name of the driver who took him to Mumbai.
Mr Bhatt was suspended last month for failing to report to work, and for using a state-given car even though he was not on duty. The Congress, however, alleges the Modi government is persecuting the police officer for taking on the Chief Minister.