Former Gujarat Minister of State for Home, Amit Shah, had asked the senior IPS officer, Sanjiv Bhatt, “not to reveal the truth” before the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating Team probing into some of the massacres during the 2002 Gujarat pogrom in the State. Mr. Bhatt, who created a flutter by submitting an affidavit before the Supreme Court attributing some anti-minority statements to the Chief Minister Narendra Modi, on May 23 told the G. T. Nanavati–Akshay Mehta judicial inquiry commission that on being summoned by the SIT in November, 2009, for questioning, he was “approached” by Mr. Shah who tried to influence him not to tell the truth to the investigating agency.
Mr. Bhatt refused to disclose the details of his deposition before the SIT stating that it was for the commission to secure the copies of his deposition from the SIT’s records, but said Mr. Shah did try to influence him to hide the true facts from the agency. His apparent reference was to the details about what transpired at the meeting convened by Mr. Modi on the night of February 27, 2002, in which the Chief Minister had reportedly “directed” the top police officers to “allow the Hindus to vent their anger” and said that the Muslims “required to be taught a lesson” in the aftermath of the Godhra train carnage the same day.