Gujarat IPS officer says his affidavit contains truth about 2002 riots

AP Arsonists take to the streets of Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots on February 28, 2002. A senior Gujarat police officer has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court to record “his version of truth” about the violence.

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India Gujarat
crime, law and justice inquiry
judiciary (system of justice)
police
unrest, conflicts and war riots

Senior IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in connection with the 2002 riots in Gujarat, on Friday said he was only discharging his duty.

“I have told my version of truth in the affidavit filed by me in the Supreme Court,” Mr. Bhatt told reporters in Ahmedabad. “If the SIT and the Supreme Court want the truth they will get it in my affidavit,” he said.

Refusing to divulge details of the affidavit, he said, “My reasons for filing the affidavit are mentioned in the document. I have no specific aim for filing the affidavit, I am just discharging my duty.”

Mr. Bhatt said that during the Special Investigation Team interrogation he answered all the questions asked by the agency.

“What I observed during the SIT questioning, I thought it should be brought to notice of the Supreme Court which I have done.”

He said he had attended the meeting called by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the evening of February 27, 2002, in his capacity as an intelligence officer then.

Mr. Bhatt also clarified that from 2002 to 2009, he was never called by any agency probing the riot case, including the Nanavati Commission. “I am ready to go before any agency which calls me. But without calling I cannot go,” he said.

According to Mr. Bhatt, in 2009, he was called for the first time after the riots to depose before an investigation agency.

The SIT had a discussion with him in 2009 but recorded his statement only in March 2011.

To a query about his presence in the meeting called by Mr. Modi, which has been denied by others who attended it, Mr. Bhatt said it was their prerogative what they wanted to say.

“I was there as an intelligence officer. I have told my part of the truth. I have mentioned in the affidavit who asked me to attend the meeting, and with whom I went there,” he said.

“If the SIT and the Supreme Court want the truth they will get it in my affidavit,” he said.

Mr. Bhatt was extensively questioned by the SIT, headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation chief R.K. Raghavan, for three days on March 21, 22 and 23 this year, in connection with the complaint of Zakia Jaffery, wife of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jaffery.

Ms. Zakia Jaffrey, in her complaint, has alleged that Mr. Modi and 62 others, including his Cabinet colleagues, police officials and senior bureaucrats aided and abetted the riots which left over 1,000 people dead across the State.

She had further alleged that between February and May 2002 there was a “deliberate and intentional failure” of the state government to protect the life and property of innocents.

Mr. Bhatt, a 1988 batch IPS officer was posted as DCP at the State Intelligence Bureau during the 2002 riots. He is presently posted as the principal of the State Reserve Police training centre in Junagadh district.

Keywords: Post-Godhra riots, Gujarat riots, Narendra Modi, SIT probe

6 years after signing, India yet to ratify UN convention against corruption

 India stands out as one of the few countries in the world that have not acceded to theUN convention against corruption. This convention, which came into force in 2005, has 140 countries on its list. India, which regularly battles corruption of mammoth proportions, is not.

India signed the convention in 2005 but the UPA government, particularly the department of personnel and training (DoPT), has steadfastly refused to ratify it. Over the years, MEA (which is the nodal ministry for international treaties), has been pushing the government to ratify the convention. The official reason is that India has not yet brought its domestic laws in line with the international convention. But it's been six years and there has been little interest by the government in making India less prone to corruption. India's stand is particularly strange since many Indian diplomats helped to pilot the convention through the UN.

For instance, acceding to the convention could have made it easier for India to repatriate the billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth that have been stashed overseas. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has found himself in complex negotiations with Leichtenstein, Switzerland and Germany to bring back stolen assets. Under the convention, asset recovery is a fundamental principle, Article 51 provides for the return of assets to countries of origin as a fundamental principle of this convention.

The convention requires signatories to put in place certain preventive measures – like enhanced transparency in funding election campaigns and political parties -- which certainly in India is at the root of a lot of government corruption.

Public servants would have to be subject to codes of conduct, requirements for financial and other disclosures and appropriate disciplinary measures.

The convention criminalises not only basic corruption such as bribery and the embezzlement of public funds but also trading in influence and the concealment and laundering of the proceeds of corruption. According to UN literature, "offences committed in support of corruption, including money-laundering and obstructing justice, are also dealt with. Convention offences also deal with the problematic areas of private sector corruption."

The convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly on October 31, 2003 in New York.

Facebook Down for Many Users [UPDATED]

In the last couple of hours, Facebook has been unstable for many users (including us), according to numerous tweets from those affected. In the last 15 minutes or so, Facebook seems to be completely inaccessible.
While downtime happens far more rarely to Facebook than, say, Twitter, world’s largest social network has occasionally had stability issues. It’s a big deal: With 500 million active users, complaints about downtime mount up pretty quickly.
We’ve contacted Facebook to see what’s wrong. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.
Update: Facebook has reached out to us with the following statement: “We are experiencing site issues that are affecting some people. As a result, the site may be slow or time out for some users. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”
Update #2: Although it’s still slow for some, Facebook now seems to be working normally for most users. 

Anna Hazare – Symbol of People’s Power

Anna Hazare – Symbol of People’s Power

While we celebrate victory of people’s power through Anna Hazare, we feel proud to be a part of Indian democracy. After Mahatma Gandhi’s Freedom Movement and Jai Prakash Narayan’s movement against Indira Gandhi’s misrule, it is the third occasion when we ordinary Indians feel we have the power to humble an arrogant regime. Congratulations to all those who participated in Anna’s movement, physically or online, including Jago Party members who fasted in support of the movement in different cities across India on different days! Thanks also to the Internet technology which has given us a new weapon to fight by facilitating easy communication!

What lessons do we learn from this movement?

First of all, the present UPA regime is totally indifferent to people’s sentiments. They first shamelessly tried to ignore the demand for joint committee to discuss civil society’s Jan Lokpal Bill, but when they discovered the growing popularity of this demand, they immediately agreed! This means they never think in terms of national interest, but only in terms of vote banks! For the last 42 years, Congress had been dithering on this issue of Lokpal. So, it is obvious that they would again try to obstruct or dilute the Bill. Hence, we have to keep up the pressure. We have seen the success of people’s power and we would not hesitate to use it again.

Secondly, all of us have some doubts about whether the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill would really remove corruption. Jago Party firmly believes that it will definitely make corruption much less tempting. Why? Because chances of a corrupt babu or neta being detected and punished would be greatly enhanced by the proposed law. This is assured by the following features of the Bill:

1.    No MP or MLA would ever be made Lokpal. The selection committee would consist of 2 senior most Judges of Supreme and High Courts each, Nobel Laureates of Indian origin, last 3 Magsaysay award winners, Chief Election Commissioner and CAG. The entire selection process would be through open advertisements and in a fully transparent manner. All this would ensure that no chamcha is selected as Lokpal.

2.    Unlike ACB or CBI, Lokpal need not take permission from anybody to launch investigation or prosecution against any neta, babu or judge. In fact, ACB, CBI, CVC etc will be merged in the institution of Lokpal. So, Lokpal would become almost completely autonomous and fully empowered.

3.    At present, no action is taken on citizens’ complaints. Lokpal will hear all complaints, investigate and prosecute concerned babus in a time bound manner. He could impose penalty of Rs 250 per day of delay to be deducted from the salary of the concerned babu and give it as compensation to the aggrieved person.

4.    At present, there is nothing in the law to recover the ill gotten wealth. Lokpal will have powers to recover the loss to the government from the guilty. This would be in addition to minimum 5 years of jail or maximum life imprisonment.

So, we have reasons to hope that things will improve drastically with the implementation of the proposed law. Of course, systemic reforms such as state funding of elections, maximum privatization, tax reduction and cash subsidy would also be needed to reduce temptation to be corrupt in the first place.

First footage from inside Fukushima nuclear plant

First footage from inside Fukushima nuclear plant as firefighters battle to cool reactors

A video showing firefighters braving contamination risks at Fukushima nuclear power plant and battling to cool down overheating reactors has been released by the Tokyo Fire Department.

4:01PM GMT 23 Mar 2011

The footage, which was shot on March 18, shows firefighters preparing to hose reactor No. 3 at the plant, which had been emitting high levels of radiation.

Workers at the plant have been ordered to leave the site after black smoke began rising from one of its six reactors.

Japan has raised the severity rating of the nuclear crisis to level 5 from 4 on the seven-level international scale, putting it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. Chernobyl, in Ukraine, was a 7 on that scale.

The Kings Speech Wins Best Picture at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards

The Kings Speech Wins Best Picture at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards

‘The Kings Speech’ had a great outing at this years Oscars winning four awards. The film won in the best picture category and its director Tom Hooper received Best Director. Colin Firth received the award for best actor for his central role in Kings Speech while best female actor went to Natalie Portman for Black Swan. ‘The Best Supporting Actor’ and The Best Supporting Actress’ awards were bagged by Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for their performances in film, ‘The Fighter’. Indian musician AR Rahman missed out on his two nominations for his score in ‘127 hours.’

Establishments

 

C.R.P.F- 1939

 

C.I.S.F –1983

 

I.T.B.P- 1962

 

B.S.F- 1965

 

S.S.B- 1963

 

R.A.F- 1992

 

S.P.G- 1985

 

N.S.G- 1984