PP quits, lodges complaint against Aaj Tak, Tehelka scribes

Ahmedabad, Oct 27 (UNI) Mr Arvind Pandya, a public prosecutor with Gujarat government, has resigned from his post and filed a complaint against ''Aaj Tak'' and two ''Tehelka'' journalists ''I have filed a police complaint against Dhimant Purohit, a journalist with Aaj Tak, and two others persons under IPC 406 (breach of trust) 420 (cheating), 451, 469, 499, 500, 501 and 120-B,'' Mr Pandya told UNI.

Mr Pandya was shown on Aaj Tak and other channels stating that Chief Minister Narendra Modi was upset after the Godhra train burning incident in which 57 ''kar sevaks'' were burnt alive by persons belonging to minority community.

He said two unidentified persons were sent to him by Mr Purohit on the pretext that they were making a film and wanted him to enact the role of a lawyer. Mr Pandya claimed that Mr Purohit had sent along a 35-page long script and two persons had interviewed him for three-and-half hours at his place.

Mr Pandya said he had resigned as public prosecutor since, otherwise, it would not have been easy to get government permission to take legal action against ''Aaj Tak'' and ''Tehelka''.

He has lodged a complaint with the Navrangpura police here alleging that his interview was ''doctored by Tehelka''. Mr Pandya said he had not made any of the controversial statements that were attributed to him in the programme that has rocked the country.

Besides Mr Pandya, two other lawyers -- Dilip Trivedi from Mehsana and Suresh Bhatt from Sabarkantha -- had reportedly made some sensational statements pertaining to the inquiry into Godhra riots.

The sting operation shows two VHP leaders, one of them a BJP MLA, telling how they killed people during the post-Godhra riots and how they were protected by the Modi government.

Mr Pandya was shown on Aaj Tak and other channels telling that Mr Modi's ''blood was boiling'' when he first heard of the blaze in the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002. The Chief Minister, according to the statements attributed to Mr Pandya, had remarked he would have burst bombs in the Juhapura area, a Muslim dominated area in Ahmedabad.

UNI