2002 Gujarat riots: Sanjiv Bhatt arrested in evidence fabrication case

The special investigation team (SIT) on Tuesday arrested former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in connection with an FIR accusing him along with social activity Teesta Setalvad and former DGP R B Sreekumar for allegedly fabricating evidence of conspiracy behind the 2002 Gujarat riots to falsely implicate certain persons including the then chief minister Narendra Modi.

Bhatt has been behind the bars for four years and is serving a life term in a custodial death case in Jamnagar district. 

He was lodged in a Palanpur jail on charges of planting drugs on a lawyer in 1996. 

The SIT obtained a transfer warrant from the Metropolitan court on Monday evening and brought him to the city on Tuesday evening, sources said.

Bhatt is likely to be produced before the magisterial court on Wednesday.

Earlier, the court had remanded Setalvad and Sreekumar to custodial interrogation for six days till July 2, when they were sent to Sabarmati jail. 

The state government has constituted the SIT of three IPS officers to probe this case.

The FIR was lodged by the city crime branch on June 25, a day after the Supreme Court's order rejecting Zakia Jafri's appeal against the clean chit by the SC-mandated special investigation team.

The complaint mentioned the former deputy inspector general of police, Bhatt, as the first accused.

Bhatt has been accused of forging documents including the alert message that he had produced before the Godhra inquiry commission and later before the SIT.