The arrested IPS officer moved plea for bail; court issued notice to the government; hearing on Bhatt's plea resumes today.
Whistleblower IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who was arrested by the city police on Friday night, filed a petition for bail in the district sessions court on Monday. In his petition, Bhatt has alleged that he had been arrested because he had tried to the expose the government's actions that were intended to obstruct the course of justice.
After hearing his petition, the court issued notices to the state government asking it to file a reply on Tuesday. Hearing on the bail plea will resume on Tuesday in the morning session.
In his petition, Bhatt has alleged that the complaint filed against him by his former subordinate was done with an ulterior motive and at the behest of some political functionaries and senior police officials.
Bhatt has stated that the complainant (his former subordinate, KD Panth) was never forced to state anything wrong, as he had alleged in his FIR. The bail petition further states that Panth's version of events is even otherwise not believable as he has alleged that he had "surrendered" to Bhatt and was never allowed to read the contents of the affidavit mentioned in his FIR.
"The complainant [Panth] had backed out and, looking at the circumstances of the case, he appears to be acting as a ploy of and on the dictates of the political members of the government," Bhatt's petition says. Bhatt has further stated that he had been arrested as he had also moved the Supreme Court for transfer of the investigation of this case to an independent agency not under the control of the Gujarat government, particularly the chief minister.
"The applicant's [Bhatt] arrest was an objective of political persons who wanted to gain advantage of the situation by putting him behind bars," the bail petition says.
Bhatt has further stated that the search operation at his house was carried out to get hold of the evidence against Modi which he has, time and again, claimed to have.
Bhatt was arrested on Friday on charges of fabricating evidence and wrongful confinement, on the basis of complaint filed against him by Panth, a constable who had worked under him in the state intelligence bureau in 2002. Panth had accused his former of boss of forcing him file a false affidavit. Regarding the sections dealing with fabricating evidence, section 194 of the IPC was added later and is a non-bailable section.
A magisterial court on Saturday refused to send Bhatt into police custody. Instead, it remanded him in judicial custody and sent him to Sabarmati jail, a prison where Bhatt was superintendent in 2004.
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