However, the Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India concluded that Bhatt did not attend any such meeting, and dismissed his allegations.
In October 2015, the Supreme Court quashed Bhatt's plea for constituting a special investigation team (SIT) for cases filed against him by Gujarat Government.
[3] On 20 June 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Sessions Court of Jamnagar District in the state of Gujarat in a 1990 custodial death case.
[12] The Bar association members have alleged that Bhatt got himself appointed the Gujarat government's officer in-charge for the special appeal petition pending in the SC.
[14] Modi's Principal Secretary P K Mishra told The Indian Express that the State Government had no recordings or transcripts of the speech, and therefore, could not send these to the NCM.
[22] Described as a whistleblower both by some of the Indian media and some pressure groups, Bhatt has since referred to the events as "state-sponsored riots"[23] and has alleged both that Modi told his officials to be "indifferent" towards rioters and said that Muslims needed to be "taught a lesson".
[24] Panth alleged that Bhatt took him to the residence of Arjun Modhwadia, the state president of the opposition party, Indian National Congress.
[20] Before this appearance and to support the statements that he would make during it, Bhatt had attempted to obtain documents as evidence from the police and the State Intelligence Bureau, as well as from the SIT hearing.
But he told the Nanavati Commission that in 2002, the Modi government had asked the State Intelligence Bureau to tap Haren Pandya's phone to confirm that he was the minister who talked to the Concerned Citizens Tribunal.
One of those who died in the Gulbarg Society massacre that formed a part of the riots was Ehsan Jaffri, the former Indian National Congress Member of Parliament.
His widow, Zakia Jaffri, subsequently became concerned about the involvement of senior officials in allegedly aiding and abetting the rioters and by the lack of legal action against them by the police.
[32] Bhatt alleged that a mole in SIT leaked information to the Modi Government, through Gujarat's additional advocate general Tushar Mehta.
[34] In June 2011, Bhatt filed a Public-interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court, calling for an independent agency to investigate the riots or, alternatively, for the case to be transferred outside Gujarat.
During the hearing, he told the Court that Narendra Modi and his former Home Minister Amit Shah had pressurised him to destroy crucial evidence in the Haren Pandya murder case.
He claimed that while posted as Superintendent of the Sabarmati Jail in 2003, he had met Asgar Ali, an accused in the Haren Pandya murder case.
He insisted that those documents were intended for the sole purpose of ensuring that crucial evidence is not disregarded or concealed by the SIT with a view to screen powerful and influential offenders from legal punishment".
[55] Bhatt in a letter written to SIT alleged that the probe team didn't exhume the bodies from well of Naroday Patia despite strong evidences catered by him to support his claim.
He also thought that the earlier NMC report, which concerned the Godhra train incident and had been produced in 2008, should be recalled from the chief minister and presented instead to the governor.
Bhatt claimed that the affidavit showed that Chaudhary had met with Modi during the period of the riots because he was concerned about reports of events in the Gulbarg Society, including the situation of Ehsan Zafri.
According to Bhatt, the affidavit records that Chaudhary had found Modi to be not very "responsive" when they met and that he had received reports that the police were not acting as they should during the events.
Referring to his past conduct, the bench said there were three departmental inquiries pending against him and he was also accused of committing atrocities on peaceful and innocent villagers in Jamjodhpur which resulted in the death of one person.
[67] Bhatt's allegation on inaction of police officers upon instruction from Modi was also supported by K. S. Subramanian who was a member of fact finding team led by former Supreme Court Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer.
He has requested the centre to appoint two member commission to enquire the role and conduct of Modi, his officials and police officers in the Godhra massacre.
He queried how the SIT could rely on the testimony of witnesses who were present at the meeting when the investigation had itself raised doubts concerning their credibility, and he provided a rationale that could explain Bhatt's presence despite his relatively low rank.
He also disputed the SIT conclusions regarding the telephone records analysis and said that the matter of presence needed to be tested in court because the evidence available was insufficient to discount Bhatt's claim.
Ramachandran accepted that Bhatt had not acted in a manner consistent with his official duties but noted that In my opinion, despite the aforesaid background, it does not appear very likely that a serving police officer would make such a serious allegation against Mr. Modi, the Chief Minister of the State, without some basis.
One of these was that the murdered Haren Pandya, who had been the Gujarat Home Minister at the time of the riots but later had a falling out with Modi,[74] could not have been at the meeting and therefore could not have vouched for Bhatt's presence there, as had been claimed by a former judge in February 2012.
He also alleged that certain very crucial portions of his statement, including the timings of extremely consequential meetings with the chief minister Narendra Modi on 27 February & 28 February 2002, have either been incorrectly recorded or deliberately tweaked by the SIT, possibly with the ulterior motive and intent of shielding certain powerful persons including the chief minister from legal punishment.
[83] He repeated his demands in February 2012, when he also raised objections on personal safety grounds to a request from the Gujarat police that he should return his service revolver.
[80] In November 2013 Bhatt alleged that city police was not providing him adequate security, and there was an increased threat to his and his family members' lives from the "right-wing fundamentalists and the supporters of Narendra Modi".