Bhatt sticks to his guns; says no to court proposal for bail plea hearing

Ahmedabad: Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt refused to make any compromise with the Gujarat government after a local court proposed that if he went on police remand for about three hours his bail plea could be heard today itself. The response by Bhatt, who has accused Chief Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in 2002 post-Godhra riots, came after Sessions Judge G N Patel made the proposal during hearing on the state government’s revision application for his remand. “I cannot compromise with those goons. Whatever wrong the government wants to do I do not care. I will tolerate it,” Bhatt said in the open court. [caption id=“attachment_99519” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt coming out after appearing in Ahmedabad rural court on Tuesday, October 4, 2011. PTI”]  [/caption] Bhatt’s lawyer Sayed told PTI, “The court suggested to Bhatt that he should go for two or three hours remand and his bail application will be heard later in the day”. “To this suggestion, Bhatt told the judge that he would not go for any compromise on this. Bhatt further said to the judge that he believes in law and let law take its own course and give him a legal order,” Sayed said. Sayed said Bhatt is ready to be in jail for a longer duration but he will not compromise on his principles and was confident that the rule of law will prevail. The court reserved the order on the state government’s remand revision application of Bhatt for October seven. Bhatt has already filed a bail plea before Sessions Judge V K Vyas who adjourned the hearing for tomorrow. The Gujarat government had yesterday challenged in the sessions court a magisterial court’s order denying remand of Bhatt, arrested last Friday for allegedly threatening and forcing a constable to sign a false affidavit. Judge Patel reserved the order on the remand revision application for October 7. During the hearing before Judge Patel, Sayed contended that the revision remand application of the state government was not maintainable in law. He cited A Supreme Court judgement which said that granting or rejecting of remand was an interlocutory order and there cannot be revision of that order as per section 397(2) of the CrPC. Sayed said that in view of the apex court judgement the government application is not maintainable and should be rejected. On the government side, public prosecutor Pravin Trivedi argued that the state government has a right to seek revision of the remand once it is rejected. After the order was reserved, Bhatt who was present in the court told the judge that he would like to assist the court and remain present during pronouncement of the order but the judge said that his presence was not required and he also asked the jail authorities not to bring him to court on October 7. Bhatt was arrested in connection with an FIR filed against him by police constable K D Pant in June for allegedly threatening him and making him sign false affidavits regarding a meeting called by Modi on February 27, 2002, hours after the Godhra train carnage. On October 1, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate B G Doshi had rejected the state government’s demand for seven days police custody of Bhatt and remanded him in judicial custody. The government had challenged the magistrate’s order and sought Bhatt’s custody on the grounds that it wanted to know how the IPS officer had used the affidavits signed by Pant. The government contended that Bhatt’s custody was required to find out about others involved in the conspiracy, and also to ascertain whether the IPS officer had sent the affidavits to somebody using emails. The government further said that it also wanted to know how many bank lockers did Bhatt have and what was inside them. PTI