Shweta, who has moved court seeking police protection for her family, contended that Singh is neither a respondent in the case, nor is the authority to decide whether the protection is required, or not
Shweta Bhatt, wife of suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, on Thursday submitted to the Gujarat High Court that she is not seeking police protection for her husband, who is already behind bars and serving sentence in an alleged case of custodial death. Instead, she argued that she is seeking protection for her and her children for which a competent committee should do an independent analysis of threat perception and place its decision on record.
She also refuted the affidavit filed by Ahmedabad's additional commissioner of police (special branch) Prem Vir Singh, whereby the latter had clarified that she and her family does not require police protection.
Shweta, who has moved court seeking police protection for her family, contended that Singh is neither a respondent in the case, nor is the authority to decide whether the protection is required, or not.
She argued that the way the police protection earlier granted to her husband and her family was withdrawn without intimation reflects the attitude of the state government towards her family and smacks of "legal mala fide" and "arrogance of the elected government".
The affidavit earlier filed by Singh provided that there was no perception of threat against the Bhatt family and in July 2018, the security cover of 64 other persons, including Bhatt, was withdrawn. Singh, in the affidavit, had mentioned that the additional chief secretary of home department chaired a meeting in July 2018 to decide the requirement of police protection in over 150 cases and it was decided to discontinue protection granted to 64 persons. It was also argued by the state administration that the petition was filed by Shweta to gain momentary publicity.
Countering police's submission that threat perception and consequent police protection cannot be a subject matter for judicial review, Shweta, in her affidavit submitted on Thursday, contended that seeking police protection comes under the fundamental rights of Right to Life with Dignity and Protection of Liberty as enshrined in the Constitution.
Against the state's submission that police force is not meant for personal security of private individuals, Shweta has argued that the police force is meant for providing individual and collective protection to citizens. She has also questioned the "non-transparent" way in which the review of the threat to her family has been carried out.
Shweta in her petition has claimed that she suspects that personnel from Gujarat police continuously follow her and her son's every movement and it becomes difficult for her to distinguish whether police personnel, or someone else, is following them.
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