'Modi has nothing to do with FIR against Bhatt'

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has nothing to do with the FIR filed against suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt and his subsequent arrest, government pleader said on Tuesday during hearing on the latter's bail plea.

Sessions Judge V K Vyas, hearing Bhatt's bail plea, deferred the matter till Wednesday when government is likely to respond to the argument made by Bhatt's lawyer I H Syed.

Special Public Prosecutor S V Raju stated that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had nothing to do with the FIR filed against Bhatt and he was not at all connected with it.

Allegation against Modi by Bhatt was simply to divert the attention from the main offence he had committed, Raju said, adding involving the names of Modi and late Haren Pandya in affidavits was to attract media attention.

Raju argued that Bhatt was not arrested immediately after the FIR was filed in June and he was given ample time and four summons were issued despite which he did not appear before the investigating officer.

The SPP also alleged that Bhatt had suppressed the fact that he had approached the Supreme Court for bail on the very next day of his arrest on October 1. The bail plea was later withdrawn from the SC registry on the same day and Bhatt's lawyer Syed placed the fact on record only after filing bail application in a court in Ahmedabad on October 3, Raju claimed.

Syed in his defence argued that Bhatt was arrested by misusing the government machinery.

He said that it was the government which was tempering with evidence to dilute Bhatt's defence and claimed that there were contradictions in K D Pant's FIR, affidavit and statement produced in court.

Syed said that this was just an attempt to humiliate and discredit Bhatt who was a witness in Zakia Jaffery's petition in the Supreme Court where Modi was an accused along with 62 others.