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BEFORE THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR MINORITIES,NEW DELHI

Re: NCM File No. MIDL/30/0036/12COMPLAINT OF MALEK NIYAZBIBI BANNUMIYAN dated 10.

AFFIDAVIT OF SANJIV RAJENDRA BHATT

I, SANJIV RAJENDRA BHAlT, aged about 48 years residing at: ,Bungalow No.2, Sushil Nagar Part 11, Opposite Mahatma Gandhi Labour ':Inst i tu te, Dr ive- in Road, Ahmedabad 380 052, do hereby state and ' , :solemnly a f f i rm as under:

1. I m f i l ing th is af f idavi t in fur therance of my ear l ier a f f idavi t dated Apr i l25, 2012, thr ou gh which I ad in te r alia sought to br ing out certa in factsregard ing the inadequacies of the invest igat ion carr ied ou t by th e S IT in toth e Co mp laintdated June 08, 2006,made by Mrs.ZakiaJafri pertainingtovarious al legations regarding the larger conspiracy and orchestrat ionbehind the Gujarat Riots of 2002. The Compla int o f Mrs.ZakiaJafr iencompasses the abominable and woefu l events which took p lace in theState of G ujarat betw een 'Mb ruar y, 2002 a nd May, ZOO2 af ter th eabhorrent Godhra incident on 27th February, 2002.My earl ier aff idavitsought to br ing ou t certa in deta i ls regard ing the dubious ro le of the StateGovernment o f Gu ja ra t in sh ie ld ing the h igh and migh ty inc lud ing theChief Minister Mr.NarendraModi from lawful inquisit ion and legalpunishment.1 had a lso averred in m y ear l ier a ff idavi t, tha t the HonourableJustice Nan avat i and Mehta- Comm ission of Inqu iry and th e SIT we rede l ibera te ly tu rn ing a b l ind eye to the overwhe lming dd tumentary , o ra land c ircumstant ia l evidence to conceal the compl ic i ty of the StateGovernment of Gujarat and i ts h igh funct ionar ies in the Gujarat Carnageof 2002.

2. I ave now had the occas ion to peruse the Repor t submi t ted by SIT incompl iance o f th e ord er passed by the Honourab le Supreme Cour t onSeptembe r 12, 2 01 1 in Cr iminal Appeal No. 17 65 of 20 11 tha t arose ou to f SLP (Criminal) No. 1 08 8 of 2008; as well as th e Report by th e LearnedAmicus Curiae dated 25/07/2011, subm it ted pursuant to the order o f theHonourable Supreme Co urt o f Ind ia dated 05/05/2011. Copies of bot hthese R eports are now avai lab le in the publ ic domain.

3. The k ind a t ten t ion o f th is H onourable Commiss ion is d rawn to m y le t te rNo. SR B/SIT /12051 6/01 dated May 16, 2012, addressed to Shri. R. K.Raghavan, Chairman, SIT; wherein I ave t r ied t o demonst rat ive ly p o in tou t certa in app arent fa l lacies and brazen at tem pts at cover-up in the FinalRepor t submi t ted by th e SIT . A copy o f the sa id le t te r is marked andannexed herew ith as Annexure-A.

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"4 . As already submi t ted t o this honourable Commission, th e S IT hascont inuously disregarded m y repeated requests and has del iberatelydesisted f rom get t ing m y s ta tement recorded before a Magistrate as p e rth e provis ions o f Section 164(1 ) o f th e Code o f Cr iminal Procedure. I t isnow apparent from the Report submitted by SIT, that certain very crucialportions of my statement, including the timings of extremelyconsequential meetings with the Chief Minister Mr.NarendraModi on27/02/2002 and 28/02/2002, have either been incorrectly recorded ordeliberately tweaked by the SIT, possibly with the ulterior motive andintent ofshielding certain powerful persons including the Chief MinisterMr,NarendraModi from legal punishment. These deliberate acts on thepart of the SIT would amount to offences under Sections 218 and219 of the Indian Penal Code.

5. The k ind a t ten t ion o f th is Honourable Commission is d rawn t o Page 54 0 o fth e Repor t submi t ted b y th e SIT, wherein it is stated t ha t th e S IT wasdirected b y th e Honourable Supreme Court o f I nd ia on 15 /03 /2011 t ocar ry o u t fu r t he r invest igat jop under sect ion 173(8) o f the Cr.P.C. in to th ecompla in t o f Smt . ~ a k i a ~ a s i m 2 \ h & s $ n ~ a f r iated 08/06/2006. Accordinglyfu r t he r invest igat ion was carr ied o u t - a n d a Report was submi t ted t o th eHonourable Supreme Cour t o f 1ndia on 25/04/2011. The Honourablep r em e Cour t o f I nd ia on 05 /05 /2011 t hough t it fit t o hand over th e said

p o r t t o th e Learned Amicus Curiae and directed h im t o examine t h eort ; analyse and have his own independent assessment o f th ea tements o f th e witnesses recorded by the S IT and submi t h ism en t s thereon. I t was also le f t open t o th e Learned Amicus Curiae t oac t w i t h any o f th e witnesses, w ho had been examined by th e SIT,inc luding th e Police Officers, as he may deem fit. The Learned Amicuse accordingly examined th e S IT Report and also interacted wi th s om eo f th e witnesses including some Police Officers; and submi t ted h isindependent repor t t o th e Honourable Supreme Cour t o f I nd ia o n25/07/20 11.

I t may kindly be noted by that the Honourable Supreme Court ofIndialwhile disposing of SLP (Criminal) 1088 of 2002 on September 12,2011; held thatthe complaint of Mrs.ZakiaJafri encompasses theabominable and woeful events which took place in the State of Gujaratbetween February, 2002 and May, 2002 after the abhorrent Godhraincident on 27th February, 2002. The Honourable Su~reme ourt of Indiafurther held the investisation to have been conducted and com~l ete d vthe SIT, in terms of the orders passed bv itself from time to time anddirected the Chairman SIT to forward a Final Report, alonq with the entirematerial collected by the SIT, to the Court which had taken cosnizance ofC.R. No. 67 of 2002 of Meqhaninaqar Police Station, as required undersection 173!21 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

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I t is now apparent from the Report that the SIT has carried outsubstantial further investigation even after the HonourableSupreme Court of India directed the SIT to submit the Final Reportu /s 173(2) of the Cr.P.C., on September 12, 2011. I t is alsoapparent from the Report that the said further investigation hasbeen carried out after September 12, 201l;with the sole purposeand motive of shielding Mr.NarendraModi and other powerfulaccused persons from legal punishment.

6. As conveyed to this Honourable Commission on earl ier occasions, it hasbeen my longstanding and of t -stated apprehension that the Governmentof Gujarat has been select ive ly destroying potent ia l ly incr iminat ingdocuments with th e taci t b lessings of the Honourable Just ice N anavat i andMehta Commission of Inquiry as wel l as the SIT. Despite repeatedrequests and reminders, ne i ther of the two above named inquis i tor ia lagencies have deemed i t necessary and f i t to issue any d irect ions forpreservat ion or product ion of vi ta l contemporaneous documents andrecords. I t is outraq eouslv shockins:' . th at the SIT has chos en t operfunctor i lv deal wi th the issue of no%-preservat ion or destruct ion ofmater ia l docum ents and records in one sentence on Pase 529 of th e FinalReport:

rts were made to locate the dispatch register and fax registerte I B Control Room, but the same had been reportedly

ecome increasingly clear t h a t agencies and off ices work ingnde r th e cont ro l o f th e Sta te Government o f Gu ja ra t have conspired t o

est roy potential ly incr iminat ing documents and recordspertaining t o th e Gujara t Carnage o f 2002. I t is also apparent t h a t despiterepeated requests, th e Honourable Justice Nanavat i and MehtaCommission o f Inqu i ry d id n o t make any f ru i t fu l efforts fo r the product ionand/or preservat ion o f crucial and re levant records; and thereby indirect lyfaci l i tated th e process o f destruct ion o f very vi ta l evidence.The SIT under the stewardship of Mr.Raghavan has convenientlychosen to ignore the fact that such acts on the part of the StateGovernment or i ts agents would amount to offences underSections 120-B, 201 and 204 of the Indian Penal Code.

7. I t is submit ted before th is Honourable Commission that the State ofGujarat is the Prosecutor in the on-going Cr iminal Tr ia l that has ensuedfro m th e inves t igat ion o f Meghaninagar Police Sta t ion C.R.No. 67 o f 2002.That the SIT had car ried o u t fu r ther invest iga t ions u /s 173(8) o f the

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Cr.P.C. inMeghaninagar Police Station C.R.No. 67 of 2002 under orders ofthe Honourable Supreme Court of India. That I as constrained to file anaffidavit before the Honourable Supreme Court of India on 14/04/2011 inorder to bring out the inadequzcies and certain disquieting aspects aboutthe further investigation being carried out by the SIT. That the SITsubmitted its Report to the Honourable Supreme Court of India on25/04/2011. That pursuant to the order of the Honourable Supreme Courtof India dated 05/05/2011, the said Report of the SIT was handed over tothe Learned Amicus Curiae for independent analysis, assessment andopinion as stated in paragraph no. 5 above.As stated in my earlier affidavit dated 25/04/2012 under the heading'Interaction with the Amicus Curiae", I ad met the Learned AmicusCuriae on 18/06/2011 along with another witness, Driver ConstableTarachandYadav.The kind attention of this-rHonourable Commission is drawn to Paragraph21 of the Report dated 25/07/2011, submitted by the Learned AmicusCuriae where he states that:I have also received a copy of a letter (marked confidential) dated22.06.2011 from the Under Secretary, Home Department to theChairman, SIT. I n the said letter, the Government of Gujarat has stated

it has "retrieved" several emails of ShriSanjiv Bhatt (I am notmenting on the legality of such "retrieval"). According to theernment o f Gujarat:aves no room for doubt that it is a systematic and larger conspiracy,gh ShriSanjiv Bhatt, involving top leaders of Congress Party in

t, vested interest groups surviving on anti-Gujarat campaign andelectronic and print media reporters all of whom have started final effortsto keep the Godhra riot issue live based on concocted facts and ShriSanjivBhatt, through all of them, is trying to build up a story at a stage whenafter almost 10 long years the Hon'ble Supreme Court has virtuallyconcluded the judicial proceedings after undertaking tremendous judicialexercise as elaborately pointed out in the affidavit of the StateGovernment.''I t is now clear from the Report of the Learned Amicus Curiae thaton 22/06/2011, viz.within four days of my meeting with theLearned Amicus Curiae, the State of Gujarat (the Prosecutor in theon-going Criminal Trial that has ensued from the investigation ofMeghaninagar Police Station C.R.No. 67 of 2002) in a brazenreversal of its constitutionally obligated role and duty, wrote aConfidential Letter to the Chairman SIT (the Investiaator in the

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further investigations u/s 173(8) of the Cr.P.C. in MeghaninagarPoRce Station C.R.No. 67 of 2002), w it h the apparent intentionofinfluencing th e on-going investigation and shielding the accusedpersons including the Chief Minister Mr.NarendraModi and othersfrom legal punishment. The Janus-faced policies and machinationsof the State Government of Gujarat once again stand exposed inthis overt attempt at influencing and subverting the on-goinginvestigation against the Chief Minister Mr.NarendraModi andother pow erfu l persons accused of heinous crimes.Needless to elaborate, it would be an unpardonable travesty ofjustice if the State of Gujarat is permitted to succeed in its on-going collaborative effor ts to shield the high and mighty offendersfrom legal punishment.\8 . h view of the above stated facts and circumstances, it would be

wholly appropriate for a statutory national body like the National. . Commission for Minorities, mandated with the powers andresponsibility of looking into specific complaints regarding

deprivation of rights and safeguards of the Minorities and takingup such matters wi th the appropriate authorities; to immediately

' I resort to appropriate and necessary legal recourse, in order toensure that the victims of the genocidal carnage of 2002 are notdeprived of their Fundamental Right to Justice by the jointmachinations of the State Government of Gujarat, the HonourableJustice Nanavati- Mehta Commission of Inquiry, the SIT headed byMr.Raghavan and the high and mighty persons accused of heinous

enocidal crimes.rther submit that .once I m allowed access to the requisite andant information/records/documents as prayed for in Para5 of my

lication dated 1 2 ~ ~arch 2012, to this Honourable Commission; I shallin a position to file a more detailed and comprehensive Affidavit

ding the events, factors and circumstances that facilitated theGujarat Carnage of 2002, as also ,the on-going attempts at deliberatedisregard/ destruction of crucial and'relevant evidence with a view to denythe minorities in Gujarat, the rightful Justice due to them and deprive. them of the right to fair investigation, inquiry into offences/instancespertaining to systematic destruction of their life and property during theGujarat Carnage of 2002.

f lSolemnly affirmed at Ahm dabad, t h i s e t h day of May, 2012.I -I x 7 5 k

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-Y AF DEPONENT