New Delhi, November 12: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay investigation against suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt facing charge of hacking the email account of Gujarat Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta.
It was based on the email transcripts recovered from Mehta’s email account that Bhatt had mounted attack on Chief Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of playing a crucial role in instigating the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat.
The apex bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai refused to provide relief to Bhatt, who demanded a stay on investigation. The bench said, “We will not pass any orders unless we hear the other side.” However, the bench issued notice on the demand in the petition to transfer the investigation of the case lodged at Vastrapur police station to an independent agency, preferably CBI.
The Court sought the responses of Union Home Ministry, Gujarat Government, CBI and Mehta within four weeks.
Bhatt claimed that the present FIR by Mehta was a deliberate attempt to intimidate and harass him for pursuing the case against Modi. He said, “The said acts are done to create a coercive atmosphere bordering on terror, so that no person should dare to speak truth and give any evidence before any authority or court.”
For this reason, Bhatt through his counsel IH Syed demanded the investigation of the case to be transferred to any agency outside the control of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Bhatt’s counsel produced a letter written by his client suggesting that even his email account was hacked. The letter dated July 18, 2011 was addressed to Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing DIGP Vivek Gogia. Bhatt claimed he came to know about his email account being hacked after a journalist contacted him for his response over the incriminating transcripts. The Court gave permission to file this letter as part of the case records by the next date of hearing.
–Agencies–