“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. And all the more dangerous when the government is diabolically devious as well,” Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt said on a day that the Gujarat Government removed him from service. The Gujarat-cadre officer claimed that he was removed “after conducting a sham, ex-parte inquiry on completely fabricated charges of unauthorised absence from duty.”
Down but not out, the IPS officer claimed that he has enjoyed every moment of his journey in the service. “All I have to say is that, at the age of 24, with a passion and fire that still continues to rage in me, I chose the Indian Police Service because I saw it as a career that would add action and purpose to my life. And I have not been disappointed one bit. In fact, I have enjoyed every moment of the last 27 years in the IPS,” he said in a Facebook post.
Bhatt said the ground of his sacking– unauthorised absence from duty — pertains to the period when he was deposing before the SIT (investigating into the Zakia Jafri complaint) and the Nanavati Commission (inquiring into the Gujarat riots).
“Be that as it may, the bottom-line is that if the Government of the day does not require my services…so be it. I pray to God that he may continue to kindle and stoke the passion and fire that has possessed me all these years. May He continue to lead me in my just pursuits”, he said.
Bhatt, who had taken on the Gujarat government headed by Narendra Modi over the 2002 post-Godhra riots, was removed on the ground of “unauthorised absence” from service.
A 1988 batch IPS officer, he 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.
Sharing his thoughts on Facebook he said,
“I have principle and no power
You have power and no principle
You being you
And I being I
Compromise is out of the question
So let the battle begin…
I have truth and no force
You have force and no truth
You being you
And I being I
Compromise is out of the question
So let the battle begin…
You may club my skull
I will fight
You may crush my bones
I will fight
You may bury me alive
I will fight
With truth running through me
I will fight
With every ounce of my strength
I will fight
With my last dying breath
I will fight…
I will fight till the
Castle that you built with your lies
Comes tumbling down
