File photo of sacked Gujarat police officer Sanjiv Bhatt.
A day after the
Supreme Court rejected sacked Gujarat police officer Sanjiv Bhatt's petition to reopen Gujarat riots cases, saying he had not come with "clean hands", the ruling BJP said its apprehensions have been confirmed.
"What is truly remarkable is, the court has confirmed with positive evidence all the apprehensions we had for so many years, namely there is a group patronized by the Congress party of NGOs, selected bureaucrats, civil servants, police officers who are doing their bidding to defame the Gujarat government, Narendra Modi ji and Amit Shah," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.
The Supreme Court had yesterday rebuked Mr Bhatt in sharp terms, saying he had interacted with "top rival political leaders of Gujarat" despite being a senior police officer.
"It is also apparent that the petitioner had acted in deliberation and consultation with the leaders of rival political party, NGOs and had sent the e-mails to the effect that he was not fully exploited by a counsel of the rival political party while his statement was being recorded before the Justice Nanavati Commission," the court said, adding that Mr Bhatt "exchanged e-mails with rival political party leaders and was being tutored by the lawyer of NGO and its activist."
Mr Bhatt's interactions on email with journalists and NGOs during the Nanavati inquiry into the 2002 riots made it clear that "he has not come to the Court with clean hands," the Supreme Court said, dismissing Mr Bhatt's plea for a court-monitored probe into two cases lodged against him.
Mr Prasad said it was a "matter of great assurance" that the Supreme Court had rejected Mr Bhatt's petitions.
The Congress called the court judgement "very disappointing."
"We were not parties in this case and the state government counsel and the accused counsel were working together in this case," said Congress' Sachin Pilot.