Modi doesn't want meddling in Gujarat

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi asks PM Manmohan Singh to stop blatant interference from Home Minister P Chidambaram, saying it would encourage indiscipline among delinquent police officers and lead to anarchy

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi asks PM Manmohan Singh to stop "blatant interference" from Home Minister P Chidambaram, saying it would encourage indiscipline among "delinquent" police officers and lead to anarchy

Senior IPS officer Rahul Sharma was today chargesheeted by the Gujarat government for passing on call records to the Nanavati Commission probing the post-Godhra riots in 2002 without informing the state administration. While news about Sharma's suspenion had led to Home Minister P Chidambaram's statement on Friday that the central government had the right to "look into" the cases of two Indian Police Service (IPS) officers who are facing disciplinary action from the Modi government, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi wasted no time in addressing the Prime Minister and went as far as to warn the center that this could lead to anarchy in government.u00a0



"Rules do provide for central government to take certain decisions but this depends on the officer concerned. If officer concerned raises it we can," Chidambaram had said on Friday.

The Gujarat government suspended Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Sanjiv Bhatt earlier this week. He had filed a public interest litigation in the apex court court against Modi over the post-Godhra riots in 2002.

In his letter to the PM, Gujarat Chief Minister Modi said that this is the second time that the Home Minister has intervened in favour of police officers and is thus encouraging indiscipline.

"Some other senior ministers of the union cabinet have also made similar statements before the media. These statements are strictly against the centre-state relationship protocol and a dangerous threat to the federal set-up of Indian governance," he wrote in the letter, copies of which were released in Gandhinagar.

In New Delhi, the Bharatiya Janta Party jumped on board with BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman saying, "Instead of strengthening effective policing, the Home Minister is supporting those who are spreading disaffection."

Modi made it clear that the central government cannot intervene in cases that fall under the jurisdiction of the state.

In May 2002, Sharma was asked to assist the investigations into the Naroda Patia massacre (95 dead). As part of the investigation, phone call data of the entire city of Ahmedabad was collected. This data revealed the links that political leaders shared with police officers, and their movements during the peak of rioting.

The then joint commissioner of crime branch, P P Pande, had handed over a set of two CDs, containing the data, to Sharma and asked him to analyse the records. Sharma copied the same on the hard disk of his personal computer but before he could study it he was transferred to Vav, Surat.

As per his statement before the Nanavati Commission, he had sent back the CDs to Pande through a police messenger just before relinquishing charge.