Sanjeev Bhatt alleges details of SIT probe on Guj riots leaked

Ahmedabad, Aug 5 (PTI) Indian Police Service (IPS)
officer Sanjeev Bhatt, who has accused wester Indian state
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of misusing state
machinery during 2002 post-Godhra riots, has alleged that
Special Investigations Team (SIT) probe details on riot cases
were leaked to a top law officer of the state government.
Bhatt, in his 19-page supplementary affidavit filed
before the Indian Supreme Court last week, alleged that
someone from within the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was
leaking sensitive and confidential details related to
investigations conducted by it to Additional Advocate General
Tushar Mehta.
Bhatt, an Inspector General-rank officer, alleged in
the affidavit that he had seen e-mails from the SIT probing
the riots cases in the personal mail account of Mehta.
Mehta on his part lodged a complaint with the state
cyber cell accusing Bhatt of hacking his e-mails, police said.
"A case has been registered against IPS officer Sanjeev
Bhatt after a complaint was lodged against him by the
Additional Advocate General of Gujarat High Court accusing
him of hacking his e-mails," Joint Commissioner of Police of
sector-I Ajay Tomar said.
"An FIR has been registered (under the Information
Technology Act-2008) at the Vastrapur police station, and
investigations are underway," another police official said.
Incidentally, Bhatt and Mehta have been family friends
since long.
Mehta alleged that Bhatt hacked his e-mail and accessed
it and passed on the information to others also.
"These communications contain my personal, official,
and legal correspondences which are not only unauthorisedly
seen by Bhatt but shared by him with others for ulterior
motive, which, apart from being criminal offences, grossly
violates my right of privacy," Mehta said in the complaint.
"I have reasons to believe that he must have taken
hard and soft copies of my emails and he is using the same out
of contact for an ulterior motive and with an intention of
tarnishing my reputation," he said.
Bhatt had earlier filed a petition in the Supreme Court
a couple of months back accusing Modi of misusing state
machinery against Muslims during the post-Godhra riots.
"I have never given Bhatt my password and never
authorised him to see my emails. Without my permission he has
accessed my emails, passwords and has altered, compromised and
tempered my mail accounts committing gross violation of law",
he said.
Bhatt in his affidavit filed in the Supreme Court also
alleged that Tushar Mehta used to receive confidential
information regarding the investigation conducted by the
Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT)
probing the complaint against Modi and others.
Bhatt in his affidavit said that in September 2009
onwards, he was time and again required to access the e-mail
account of Mehta.
He said he came across several e-mail exchanges that
allegedly were clearly indicative of an unholy nexus and
illegal complicity between high functionaries of Gujarat
and other extraneous political entities, in the on-going cover
up operations aimed at shielding powerful persons from
prosecution for alleged heinous crimes.