SIT arrests Sanjiv Bhatt in Gujarat riots forgery case

This is the third arrest after Teesta Setalvad and former IPS officer Sreekumar 

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case of forgery and fabrication of evidence in connection with the 2002 riots has arrested dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, making the third arrest after social activist Teesta Setalvad and former IPS officer R.B. Sreekumar. 

The SIT is probing allegedly fabricating evidence of conspiracy behind the 2002 Gujarat riots to falsely implicate certain persons including the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, now Prime Minister. 

The SIT has brought Mr. Bhatt from the Palanpur jail where he is serving life term in a custodial death case in Jamnagar district. He was lodged in the Palanpur jail on charges of planting drugs on a lawyer in 1996. 

As per the sources, the SIT obtained a transfer warrant from the metropolitan court and brought him to Ahmedabad on Tuesday night. He will likely be produced before the court on Wednesday.  

The police have accused Mr. Bhatt of forging documents, including the wireless alert message that he had produced before the Godhra inquiry commission and later before the Supreme Court-appointed SIT.

Earlier, Ms. Setalvad and Mr. Sreekumar were arrested and remanded in police custody till July 2. Both have been sent to judicial custody and have applied for bail. 

The FIR lodged by the police inspector of Ahmedabad detection of crime branch invoked Sections 468, 471 (forgery), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence), 211 (institute criminal proceedings to cause injury), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture), and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.