Sanjeev Bhatt's bail plea adjourned to Oct 10

A sessions court in Ahmedabad on Friday adjourned the hearing on arrested IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt's bail plea to October 10. Sessions Judge V K Vyas adjourned the hearing as the court hours ended while the argument of the government's side, opposing grant of bail, was going on.

The state's contention is that Bhatt has criminal antecedents and so he can misuse the bail.

Earlier, special public prosecutor S V Raju said that Bhatt had been charged under appropriate offences under IPC. Bhatt's lawyer, advocate I H Syed, sought bail on two main grounds -- the complainant, K D Pant, has been changing his statement with regard to his allegation that Bhatt threatened him and made him sign false affidavits.

Secondly, police had no power to invoke sections 193, 194 and 195 of IPC (related to fabrication of evidence) against

Bhatt, it was up to the courts to invoke these sections after due inquiry. Syed further said that as the procedure under the CrPC was not followed, the IPC sections 193, 194 and 195 could not have been invoked.

Raju countered this saying that section 340 of CrPC did not curtail police's power to investigate and invoke certain sections.

Nor did the CrPC affect police's power to file FIR against Bhatt, Raju argued.

Bhatt was arrested on September 30. The FIR filed against him by constable Pant in June alleges that the IPS officer bullied him into signing false affidavits regarding a meeting called by Chief Minister Narendra Modi on February 27, 2002, hours after the Godhra train carnage.

On October 1, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate B G Doshi rejected the state government's demand for seven days' police custody. The court sent him to judicial custody.

The government has challenged the magistrate's order.