Nation-wide protest on Monday against Sanjeev Bhatt's arrest

New Delhi - 02 Oct 2011: The arrest of Gujarat's DIG rank police officer Sanjeev Bhatt and the prime witness in Gujarat carnage, has created uproar amongst civil society organizations, civil rights groups and activists.

Activists and Civil Rights' groups have given a nationwide call of protest against Bhatt's arrest on Monday. "We strongly condemn the arrest of Sanjeev Bhatt by the Modi government on fabricated charges," said eminent social activist Shabnam Hashmi, while terming the arrest arbitrarily and unconstitutional.

"Sanjiv Bhatt stood up and tried to speak about the role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and now the government is harassing his family and him," said social activist Teesta Setalvad.

On a call given by ANHAD, All India Secular Forum and various other organizations, protests are being organized in the of cities of Allahabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, barabanki, Jhansi, Bhopal, Indore, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Dehradun, Bangalore, Baroda, Jammu, Srinagar, Chennai, Trivendrum, Hisar, Rohtak, Gonda, and Faizabad.

In Delhi, a citizen's protest will be held at Gujarat Bhawan on Monday, 3:30 pm onwards.

"We demand immediate and unconditional release of Sanjeev Bhatt," said Mahtab Alam, a Delhi based Civil Rights' Activist. "Its clear case of intimidation of whistle-blowers and shows totalitarian character of Modi regime," he alleged.

Bhatt was detained at 4.15pm from his house in Memnagar and later his house was also raided. His wife Shweta wrote a letter on Saturday to Gujarat's Director General of Police (DGP) Chitranjan Singh and Ahmedabad Police Commissioner Sudhir Sinha, saying there is a threat to her husband's life.

Bhatt's arrest is very important because it came two days after Bhatt filed an affidavit in the Gujarat high court linking Modi and former home minister Amit Shah with the murder of BJP leader Haren Pandya.

Bhatt had also filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court implicating Modi in the 2002 riots. In April, DIG Sanjeev Bhatt filed affidavit in SC, alleging CM Narendra Modi called a meeting on Feb 27, 2002 following the burning of Sabarmati Express at Godhra station, and asked top officials to let "Hindus teach a lesson to Muslims".

Sanjeev Bhatt is the only whistle blower police officer, who has given evidence against Modi and has for the first time put in black and white the fact that Modi was involved in 2002 Gujarat carnage. Though Modi's involvement was talked about in under tones all these eight years but no one had the courage to take on Modi, knowing his vindictive ways of functioning.

source: TwoCircles.net