Though secrecy has been maintained about the details of the confidential report, informed sources said the report could offer explanation about the role of chief minister Narendra Modi in the entire carnage.
The Special Investigating Team that's been probing the riots in Gujarat nine years ago in which at least 2000 persons were killed has submitted its report in a sealed cover to the Supreme Court.
Though secrecy has been maintained about the details of the confidential report, informed sources said the report could offer explanation about the role of chief minister Narendra Modi in the entire carnage.
Another significant feature of this report could be the SIT's stand on the grave allegations made by a senior Indian Police Service officer from Gujarat, Sanjiv Bhatt, who was the deputy commissioner (intelligence).
Bhatt has sought protection for self, his family, and the witnesses, who he said had been intimidated by none other than SIT sleuths.
In a ‘confidential’ affidavit, Bhatt said he was present at a high level meeting of officers with Modi when Gujarat had started burning and when the chief minister purported to have advised the investigating agencies to allow Hindus to vent their anger against the Godhra carnage.
He has blamed SIT for shielding Modi by ignoring the disclosures made by him before the SIT in 2009. Modi, who was interrogated by the SIT last year, has testified that Bhatt was not present at that meeting.
Other police officers who were at the meeting have backed the chief minister. In a related development an Indian Administrative Service officer Pradeep Sharma has accused Modi for inaction during the post Godhra riots. Sharma, who was municipal commissioner of Jamnagar at that time, said he got a call from the Chief Minister's Office to ask his brother and IPS officer Kuldeep N Sharma the then IGP Ahmedabad, not to take any action against the rioters.
"I had received a phone call from the Chief Minister's Office stating that I should ask my brother Kuldeep N Sharma that he should abstain from taking any proactive measures in favour of the minorities," he said. Sharma is presently lodged in a Gujarat jail in a land scam case. Home minister P Chidambaram has expressed happiness at the guts shown by Bhatt and Sharma in exposing the arch rival of Congress government Modi.
"I am glad people are standing up to say what they feel happened during the period," Chidambaram said in Kolkata. "These allegations or these statements have been in the air for quite some time. Only now people have summoned the courage to make them public," he said. "Today, I read that another IAS officer has made such a statement. But those who have followed what was happening in Gujarat knows that a number of people were willing to speak the truth but were afraid to speak."
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