Not facing pressure to file complaint against Sanjiv Bhatt, says KD Panth

KD Panth, the main complainant in the arrest of suspended Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt, has rubbished claims that he was being forced to file a complaint against the latter on Tuesday, and said he lodged the complaint based on the experience that he had undergone.

"I have lodged the FIR (First Information Report) based on the situations I have been through and on whatever I faced. Therefore, there is no question of any pressure from anyone," Panth told media persons in Ahmedabad amid rumours that officials of the Narendra Modi Government have threatened him to file a complaint against Bhatt.
 
"I have reported the incident in the FIR that I was made to sign the affidavit by wrong means. And I have mentioned everything in the FIR," he added.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad Sessions Court that was hearing the Revision Remand Petition of the Gujarat Government against Bhatt today reserved further hearing on the for October 7.

Bhatt had moved a bail application in a local court in Ahmedabad on Monday in which he submitted he was falsely implicated with an ulterior motive at the behest of some political functionaries and senior police officers.

Bhatt claimed Panth appeared to be acting following 'diktats' from political members of the Modi Government.

According to the plea of the DIG rank IPS officer, his arrest was aimed at getting hold of the alleged evidence he had against Modi with regard to the 2002 communal riots, and destroying them.

Apprehending danger to her husband's life, Shweta Bhatt, the wife of arrested IPS officer, also wrote a letter to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram requesting him to intervene and take stalk of the current situation.

An extremely worried Shweta Bhatt on Monday said none of the top administrative authorities replied to the letters written by her.

"I wrote to the Judicial Magistrate, Commissioner of Police and the Director General of Police (DGP), but I received neither a single reply nor any assurance that 'I should not worry things would be fine, nothing at all'. So I became more scared; then we came to know that all these raids and mental torture was under the instruction of Mr Sinha (Ahmedabad Police Commissioner Sudhir Sinha), hence we wrote to Mr P Chidambaram," she said.

Sanjiv Bhatt, who had accused Narendra Modi of misusing State machinery during the post-Godhra riots, was arrested on Friday in connection with a complaint regarding coercion of a subordinate.

Bhatt was arrested on a complaint filed by constable KD Panthh, who worked as a subordinate with Bhatt in the state Intelligence Bureau.

According to Panth's complaint, Bhatt had forced him to file an affidavit in which Modi had been named.

Bhatt has been locked in a public confrontation with Modi after he had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing the chief minister of complicity in the 2002 riots.