Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt sacked for 'unauthorised absence' from service

Ahmedabad: Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who had taken on the Gujarat government headed by Narendra Modi over the 2002 post-Godhra riots, was on Wednesday sacked on the ground of "unauthorised absence" from service, an action, which he said came after a "sham inquiry".

"Yes, it is true that my services have been terminated. This was expected. They have been conducting a completely ex-parte inquiry. I got the letter (sack order) from them (the Home ministry)," Bhatt said on Wednesday evening.

Gujarat Chief Secretary GR Aloria confirmed the development. "Services of Sanjiv Bhatt have been terminated," he said.

Bhatt said he was sacked on the basis of "a sham inquiry" with regard to his "unauthorised absence" from service when he had come to Ahmedabad to depose before the SIT probing the 2002 riots.

"They (government) have been conducting a sham inquiry... an ex-parte inquiry about unauthorised absence from duty," Bhatt said.

When asked if he will challenge his sacking, Bhatt said he did not want to impose himself on the government.

"A lot can be done (against the move) but whether it is worth challenging...Government does not want me, why I should be so keen that I want to remain in this," Bhatt said.

"I had joined the police with a passion, now it seems the country and this government does not need me. So whatever has happened is good. I cannot impose myself on the government."

Bhatt, a 1988 batch IPS officer, was under suspension since 2011 for unauthorised absence from service.

He had alleged in an affidavit in the Supreme Court that Narendra Modi, then the Chief Minister, instructed the top police officers to allow the Hindus "to vent out their anger" after the train-burning incident at Godhra in February 2002.

Bhatt had claimed that he had attended a meeting in this regard on February 27, 2002 at Modi's residence in Gandhinagar.

Recently, the Gujarat government issued Bhatt a show-cause notice over a video purportedly showing him with a woman. It sought his explanation for allegedly having extra-marital relationship; Bhatt denied that the man in the video was him.