THE SANJIV BHATT CASE- GODHRA AFTERMATH

 

Sanjiv Bhatt claims that he is a Kashmiri Pandit. He did his M Tech from IIT Bombay after which he was selected for the IPS in 1988. 

In the year 1990 as an ASP he detained 150 people in order to contain riot in Jamnagar district. Of them Prabhudas Vaishnani had to be hospitalised where he died of kidney failure. His brother lodged an FIR against Bhatt and 6 other policemen alleging that his brother had been tortured in police custody. 

In the year 1996 as the SP of Banaskantha district he was accused of framing a Rajasthan based lawyer Sumer Singh Rajpurohit in a narcotics case. The National Human Rights Commission found him guilty in that case and fined him Rs 1 lac. 

Bhatt was pally with Gujarat High Court Judge R R Jain whose sister Amribai owned a shop in the market of Pali town. Rajpurohit was the tenant of that shop which he did not vacate and he was kidnapped by Bhatt. Incidentally the Judge RR Jain was also suspended by the SC later. 

Bhatt testified against Modi in the post Godhra riots case by filing an affidavit stating that he along with 6 other officers were present at a meeting at the residence of PM Modi where Modi asked them to go slow on the rioters. 

The affidavit carried the signature of KD Panth his driver and constable. In June 2011 Bhatt filed an FIR against Bhatt stating that Bhatt has threatened him and forced him to file the false affidavit. He also stated that he was taken to the residence of the state President of the Congress who also asked him to obey Bhatt. He also said that he was on leave in February 2002 when the riots broke out. Only Taracahnd Yadav the driver of K Chakravarthi testified that Bhatt came in the car and that Panth was also with him. 

In the year 2003 Bhatt was posted as Superintendent of Sabarmati central Jail. There he became very popular among prisoners. He introduced desserts like Gajar ka Halwa in the menu  and nominated the Godhra accused on a jail committee. 2 months after his appointment he was transferred for being too friendly with the prisoners and giving favours to them. In November 2003, nearly half of the 4000 prisoners in the jail went on a hunger strike of 6 days to protest his transfer.6 convicts also slashed their wrists in protest. 

In the year 2008, the SC has appointed an SIT headed by former CBI Chief Raghavan in 2009 to enquire into the various incidents of 2002 and to investigate on Modi and 62 other people. In his affidavit of 2011 Bhatt alleged that the SIT is trying to hide the truth behind the riots.   

The then Additional Advocate General of Gujarat Tushar Mehta was pally with Bhatt whose account Bhatt used to book a US trip for their families in 2010. At that time Bhatt says he found emails from SIT in Tushar Mehta’s mailbox. Now Bank accounts and mail accounts are totally different which means Bhatt spied on Mehta’s mail. In Aug 2011 Tushar Mehta lodged a complaint against Bhatt stating that Bhatt has hacked into his email account. 

The court previously appointed Raju Ramachandran ( Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and Additional Solicitor General) as Amicus Curie (Friend of the Court). The SIT submitted its report in Nov 2010 which was referred to Ramachandran who asked them to conduct a self-review.  The self-review was submitted by the SIT in April 2011 and this was again referred to Ramachandran. 

In June 2011 Bhatt filed a PIL asking that the investigation be taken up by an independent agency or be transferred out of Gujarat. In October 2015 the SC bench trying the case ruled that the allegations against SIT are totally false and baseless. It further rebuked Bhatt that he had exchanged emails with rival political party leaders and was being tutored by the lawyer of an NGO and its activist.   

In Aug 2011 the Gujarat government has suspended Bhatt for unauthorised absence from duty, not appearing before an enquiry committee and using his official car while not on duty.  

The Gujarat Government had first appealed to the court to drop charges on Bhatt, but after he filed an affidavit against Modi in April 2011 in the court, the government withdrew its application Bhatt was then arrested by the Gujarat government on the charge of forcibly abducting his driver KD Panth and forcibly obtaining a statement from him. Bhatt was granted a bail in the case in Oct 2011.   

On Nov 2012 Bhatt and 6 other policemen were charged with murder in the custodial death of 1990 and were given a life sentence.

 In March 2024 Bhatt was convicted in a drug peddling case by the Palanpur court. In 1996 he falsely implicated an advocate by placing drugs weighing 1 Kg. 

On 29th April 2025 the Supreme Court dismissed his plea for bail and suspension of life sentence. 

The SC bench in 2015 used email evidence to rule that Bhatt had deliberately colluded with the leaders of the opposition Congress party, NGO activists and certain elements in the media to furnish false evidence on his attending the 27th fem 2002 meeting of Modi where he alleged that Modi himself incited the riots. The emails indicated that he was in active touch with the opposition and NGO’s. The court also condemned Bhatt’s conduct as underhanded and unbefitting of a senior police officer. 

His wife Swetha Bhatt contested the election on a Congress ticket against Modi in the Maninagar assembly constituency of Ahmedabad and lost miserably. She polled only 34,097 votes against Modi’s 1, 20,470 and Modi increased his vote share by over 5% compared to the previous assembly election. That clearly proves what people think about Sanjay Bhatt.  

Bhatt maliciously filed 40 petitions in the High Courts of Rajasthan and also the Supreme Court to deliberately delay any action on him.      

As for the Sanjiv Bhatt case, SIT Lawyer Jamuar said to the Court that, 

The meeting was attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, bureaucrats, then Director General of Police K Chakravarti and Ahmedabad Police Commissioner P C Pandey," 

"Sanjiv Bhatt says that he attended the meeting conducted by Modi. But if he had attended, then he should have informed his senior officer G C Raigar about the developments of the meeting. Raigar has said that Bhatt never told him about any meeting that the latter attended,".

"Also, Bhatt sent a wireless message to IPS officer Rahul Sharma asking him to confirm whether slain minister Haren Pandya was present at the high-level meeting convened by the Chief Minister. If Bhatt was present in the meeting, surely he would not ask Rahul Sharma to confirm that”. 

“When Sharma said Pandya was not present in the meeting on the night of February 27, Bhatt again asked Sharma to verify and confirm whether he was there or not”.

"Are all the officers - bureaucrats, DGP, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner telling lies? Is only Sanjeev Bhatt speaking truth? Everybody present in that meeting denied the presence of Bhatt and also denied any such statement made by Modi," Jamuar said.

All these arguments were made in 2013 when Modi was the CM of Gujarat and not the PM. 

As of April 2013, 249 convictions had been secured in the Gujarat violence of which 184  were Hindus and 65 were Muslims. 31 of the Muslim convictions were for the massacre of Hindus in Godhra. That means in the post-Godhra violence only 34 Muslims were arrested.