CID has found financial bunglings by him during an earlier tenure. The irregularities, estimated at `20 crore, pertain to his Civil Defence Dept posting-The pioneer-24.10.11

Though suspended DIG Sanjiv Bhatt has been bailed out in the case of threatening his junior and making him sign a false affidavit, there is more trouble ahead for him as the CID (Crime) have found some financial bunglings by him during one of his earlier tenure. These financial irregularities, estimated to the tune of `20 crore, pertain to Bhatt's posting in State Civil Defence Department from 2006 to 2010. Bhatt is also facing charges of a custodial death in Jamnagar district, dating back to October 1990. DIG Bhatt, who had alleged earlier this year that Chief Minister Narendra Modi had asked the State police to remain inactive when “Hindus vent their anger“ following the killing of 58 kar sevaks in the Sabarmati Express inferno at Godhra on Feb 27, 2002, was arrested on Sept 30 for threatening his former subordinate Karansinh Pant and forcing him to sign affidavit implicating Modi. After spending 17 days in judicial custody in the Sabarmati Central Jail, Bhatt was granted conditional bail by a local court on Oct 17. Departmental enquiries by the State Home Department, completed recently, have revealed financial irregularities of `20 crore in the purchase of sirens to be installed in various district and taluka headquarters. During his tenure in the state Civil Defence department, Bhatt had awarded the contract to instal the sirens to a South India-based company which was blacklisted by the Union Government. A purchase committee set up by the department had rejected the blacklisted company but still the same company was awarded the contract for the project to install nearly 500 sirens in taluka and district headquarters of the State. The inquiry has found that Bhatt’s senior in Civil Defence department Additional DGP RMS Brar, now retired too is involved in the financial irregularity in awarding the contract of the project to instal the sirens. The Civil Defence Department gets 75 per cent of its funding from the Centre but it did not pay its share since the contract was given to the Bangalore-based company blacklisted by the Centre. Thus, the entire cost of `20 crore had to be borne by the State Government, the departmental inquiry revealed. The Home Department is likely to lodge a criminal complaint soon against Bhatt and Brar. Meanwhile, Bhatt has been issued another summons by a local court for filing wrong information to avoid earlier summons. Bhatt had avoided appearing before the police for investigation on September 30 in the Karansinh Pant complaint case on the pretext of appearing before the NanavatiMehta Commission probing the 2002 Godhra train infero and the riots thereafter. Police investigations proved that Bhatt did not appear before the Commission on that day and thus he had provided wrong information to the local court. Bhatt was any way arrested on September 30 evening.

Fake currency operations covering terror nexus?—ToI-The Pioneer

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The Kerala Police think that eight persons from West Bengal, arrested at Neyyattinkara near Thiruvananthapuram with Bangladesh-produced counterfeit Indian currency notes for `2,19,000 could be having connections with some terror organisation. The police reached this conclusion, though they were still refusing to confirm this, after officials of the Special Branch, NIA and the RAW questioned the currency-couriers. The sleuths were of the opinion three of the eight persons arrested could have got terror training before coming to Kerala. The police had arrested the team from West Bengal after a footwear shop owner near Parassala informed them about a counterfeit currency note given by some of the members of the team. In the follow-up searches, the police recovered `1,000 counterfeit currencies worth `47,000 from the team and the notes for the remaining amount from two lodges in Thiruvananthapuram. The arrested persons were identified as Imam’ul Haq (19), Rija’ul Haq (20), Siraj’ul Haq (22), Zakir Ali (19), Kamir’ul Islam (20), Asum Alam (19), Ruhul amin (22) and Mujeeb Rahman (20). Among them, Imam’ul Haq and Siraj’ul Uaq were said to be the team leaders. The police are now examining the details of the calls made from the mobiles of the team members. From the interrogation, the police learned that the operatives were supposed to return to the racket’s master clean Indian currency notes for `60,000 for every `100,000 fake currency notes they were given. The operatives could pocket the remaining `40,000. The police learned that the team had sent `62,000 to an address in West Bengal. The arrested persons told the police that they were in the business for the past two years and that they had roots in all Kerala districts and in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The police also warned banks on the basis of the information that the racket had distributed counterfeit currency across the State.