Somewhere in Gujarat....

In a development that has rattled the ruling political brass, top cops threw their weight behind jailed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt. The Gujarat IPS Officers’ Association convened an emergency meeting on Saturday evening to pass a resolution in support of Bhatt and his family, who they said was being witch-hunted. This is for the first time in the decade-long Narendra Modi regime that members of the association have taken a stand in support of a fellow officer who has challenged the state government. Senior cops like R B Sreekumar, Kuldeep Sharma, Rahul Sharma and Rajneesh Rai were not so fortunate to garner support from their fraternity. The timing of the meeting which was attended by 35 top officials coincided with the wedding of the daughter of additional DG K Nityanandam, who had invited senior cops from across the state. Senior officials cornered Ahmedabad police commissioner Sudhir Sinha for allowing victimization of Bhatt, who faces charges of coercing a constable to file a false affidavit in support of his claim that he was present at the important meeting that took place at CM’s residence on February 27, 2002. Some officers objected to the manner in which Bhatt’s house was searched by Ahmedabad police. A rattled Sinha, the senior-most officer after director general of police Chittaranjan Singh, could not face the wrath of fellow policemen. Both Sinha and Singh declined the proposal to take over as the president of the association. Following a stormy meet of the Gujarat IPS Officers’ Association, four batch-mates of Sanjiv Bhatt and a representative of Ahmedabad police were asked to visit his house to show solidarity towards family members and assure them support. Atul Karwal, V M Parghi, Praveen Sinha and R S Yadav along with M M Anarwala went to Bhatt’s house on Saturday evening.