Godhra riots: Venkaiah Naidu dismisses IPS Sanjiv Bhatt's claim

Amidst controversy over a senior IPS officer's allegation implicating Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the post-Godhra 2002 riots, former BJP chief, Venkaiah Naidu today said the officer was not present in the crucial meeting based on which the charges were made against Modi.

"The then Gujarat DGP K Chakravarthi has said that the IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was not present in the February 27 meeting based on which the allegations were made against Narendra Modi", Naidu told reporters in Kolkata after campaigning for BJP candidates in the West Bengal assembly elections.

To a question whether Bhatt had made baseles allegations against Modi, Naidu said, "You are the best judge."

Earlier Modi in his testimony before the SIT also said that Bhatt being a junior officer at that time was not present in the February 27 meeting.

Bhatt, however, claimed that on February 27, 2002, he was asked by the control room to accompany Chakravarthi to the meeting along with all relevant information, possibly because ADGP intelligence GC Raiger was on leave.