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Pleading innocence, Bhatt resigns from Gujarat ministry

Bhatt handed over his one line resignation letter to chief minister Keshubhai Patel at noon.

Bhatt told reporters he resigned on moral grounds and to seek justice from the court. He denied any involvement in the case saying he and Union Minister of State for Defence Haren Pathak were with a commission appointed by Gujarat high court to find out atrocities in the area.

Pathak, also charged in the case, in which one policeman was killed, had resigned from the Union Cabinet on Saturday.

In his resignation, Bhatt said, "I am submitting my resignation from the Gujarat ministry as per my telephonic talk with Patel on Saturday."

The chief minister told waiting mediapersons that he accepted Bhatt's resignation after consulting senior cabinet colleagues Industries Minister Suresh Mehta and Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala.

The resignation letter would be sent to Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari on Sunday itself, he said.

The case was registered in April, 1985 in Astodia police station, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, against 11 people including Pathak, Bhat and Kiran Shah, brother of Transport Minister Bimal Shah.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had on Saturday sought Law Minister Arun Jaitley's opinion after the opposition mounted a strident campaign for the resignation of the two ministers, saying chargesheeted ministers cannot continue in government.

Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president Jana Krishnamurthy had on Saturday said in Gandhinagar that the party's parliamentary board would decide on the resignation demand in a week, but the ministers held a press conference in New Delhi denying their involvement in the murder.

The two ministers also made it clear that they would abide by the decision of the party leadership on the issue of their continuance in office.

Pathak and Bhatt maintained that they had been falsely implicated in the April 1985 FIR since they had moved the high court against serious police atrocities against the agitators.

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