Bhatt's remand hearing adjourned, bail plea today

Ahmedabad sessions court on Friday adjourned the police plea seeking remand of suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt till October 10. Bhatt was arrested on September 30. Another sessions court judge will hear the bail plea of Bhatt, who has accused the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi of complicity in 2002 riots.

After his arrest, Ahmedabad police had sought seven days remand but the magistrate had rejected it and sent Bhatt to judicial custody. Subsequently, the police had challenged the magistrate order before the sessions court. Meanwhile, Bhatt had filed a plea seeking bail on the ground that his arrest was "politically motivated" and KD Pant, a constable who compalined against him, was not reliable and had changed his statements many times.

Bhatt was arrested in connection with an FIR filed by Pant for allegedly threatening him and making him sign a false affidavit with regard to a meeting called by Modi on February 27, 2002, hours after the Godhra train carnage.

He has been charged under IPC sections 341 (causing wrongful restraint), 342 (causing wrongful confinement), 195 (giving fabricated evidence) and 189 (threat of injury to public servant) Earlier, in July this year, Bhatt had moved the Supreme Court demanding that there be an independent investigation of the FIR against him. Meanwhile, Bhatt's wife Shweta has written to union home minister P Chidamabaram twice seeking his intervention for providing security to her husband and her family and how the police had ill treated Bhatt in police lock up room.

She accused the police of treating Bhatt like a terrorist

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Bhatt-s-remand-hearing-adjourned-bail-plea-today/Article1-754505.aspx