Bhatt says ‘no’ to bail terms,’don’t care what they do to me’

He said bail would be considered if Bhatt went with officers for a couple of hours and answered all questions.

Bhatt turned down the offer from principal district judge G N Patel,saying there could be no compromise with the Modi government. “You can keep me in remand for 14 days but I won’t go out with these cops even for four minutes,” he told the judge,adding his was a fight for principles.

Bhatt,who criticised Chief Minister Narendra Modi for not containing the 2002 post-Godhra riots on time,was arrested last week for threatening a public servant and fabricating evidence.

Soon after Bhatt turned down the judge’s offer,the court reserved the order on his remand revision application for October 7.

The state government had on Monday challenged in the sessions court,a magisterial court order denying remand of Bhatt.

Sessions Judge G N Patel reserved the order after hearing both parties. During the hearing,Bhatt’s lawyer I H Sayed contended that the revision remand application of the state government was not maintainable in law. He cited the Supreme Court judgement which said granting or rejecting of remand was an interlocutory order and there cannot be revision of that order as per section 397(2) of the CrPC.

Sayed said in view of the apex court judgement,the government application is not maintainable and should be rejected.

On the government side,public prosecutor Pravin Trivedi argued that the state government has right to seek revision of the remand once it is rejected.

After the order was reserved,Bhatt who was present in the court told the judge that he would like to assist it and remain present during pronouncement of the order. But he was told that his presence was not required. The judge also asked the jail authorities not to bring Bhatt on October 7.

The court proposed to Bhatt that if he went on remand for three hours and came back,it would readily grant him bail. Bhatt,however,refused to take this proposal and said he cannot compromise with “touts”.

“Whatever wrong the government wants to do I don’t care,I will tolerate it,” he told the court.

He was arrested on September 30 in connection with an FIR filed against him by police constable K D Pant,once his driver,for allegedly threatening him and forcing him to sign 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 had rejected the state government’s demand for seven-day police custody of Bhatt and remanded him in judicial custody.

The government had challenged the magistrate’s order and sought Bhatt’s custody on the grounds that it wanted to know how the IPS officer had used the affidavits signed by Pant.

The government contended that Bhatt’s custody was required to find out about others involved in the conspiracy,and also to ascertain whether the IPS officer had sent the affidavits to somebody using e-mails.

The government said it also wanted to know how many bank lockers did Bhatt have and what was inside them.

Bhatt has filed for bail in the sessions court,which will be heard later in the day.