The Supreme Court on Friday sought Gujarat government's response to a plea by IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt, who had accused Chief Minister Narendra Modi of misusing state machinery against Muslims during 2002 post-Godhra riots, for transferring a criminal case against him outside the state. The plea pertained to an FIR lodged by a Gujarat State police constable in Ahmedabad alleging that Bhatt had pressurised him to sign an affidavit testifying that the officer participated in a high-level meeting after the Godhra carnage in which Bhatt had alleged he witnessed the Chief Minister's anti-Muslim bias. A bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha asked the Gujarat government and the Centre to file their replies on Bhatt's plea by August 8, the next date of hearing.