‘Hacking’ twist added to post-Godhra riot probe

Shortly before the Gujarat government is to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court to defend two ''unusual emails'' found in additional advocate general Tushar Mehta's personal email account in connection with the post-Godhra riot investigations, Mehta on Friday accused police officer Sanjiv Bhatt under the Information Technology Act with hacking his personal mail.

On Friday, Mehta filed a complaint with the police against Bhatt, a close family friend, who had accused chief minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the 2002 riots.

"We have received a complaint from Mehta, the police will investigate the case," said Sudhir Sinha, police commissioner, Ahmedabad. Bhatt was not available for comment.

It was Bhatt who approached the Supreme Court on 26 July about the two mails, which he claimed were from an insider in the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team who was leaking vital investigation details of the 2002 post-Godhra riots probe to the accused through Mehta.

Bhatt was already in trouble then with a criminal case lodged against him by Gujarat police constable K D Pant, who accused the IPS officer of putting pressure on him to testify against Modi.

While Bhatt sought a CBI inquiry into Pant's complaint in the Supreme Court, he also described at length how he stumbled upon ''two very unusual'' mails sent from the Godhra SIT's official ID (sit.godhracases@gmail.com) while checking travel details of a family holiday together.