Ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt acquitted in 1997 custodial torture case; details here
A Porbandar court has acquitted former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1997 custodial torture case, citing insufficient evidence. Bhatt, previously sentenced to life in other cases, was accused of torturing a complainant to extract a confession but was granted the benefit of doubt.
A Porbandar court in Gujarat has acquitted former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1997 custodial torture case. The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mukesh Pandya, delivered the verdict on Saturday, stating that the prosecution had failed to “prove the case beyond reasonable doubt”, PTI reported.
Bhatt, who was serving as the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Porbandar at the time, had been accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including causing grievous hurt to obtain a confession. The court granted Bhatt the benefit of the doubt due to insufficient evidence.
Bhatt was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case in Jamnagar and 20 years in jail in a 1996 case relating to planting drugs to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer in Palanpur. He is currently lodged in the Rajkot Central Jail.
The court held that the prosecution could not "prove the case beyond reasonable doubt" that the complainant was forced to confess to the crime and made to surrender by voluntarily causing pain using dangerous weapons and threats, PTI reported.
It also noted that the sanction required to prosecute the accused, who was then a public servant discharging his duty, had not been obtained in the case.
Bhatt and constable Vajubhai Chau, against whom the case was abated after his death, were charged under sections 330 (causing hurt to extort confession) and 324 (causing hurt with dangerous weapons) of the Indian Penal Code on the complaint by one Naran Jadav for causing him physical and mental torture in police custody to extract confession in a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and Arms Act case.
A first information report was filed against Bhatt and Chau in a Porbandar city B-division police station on April 15, 2013, following the court's direction on Jadav's complaint before a magistrate court on July 6, 1997.
Jadav was one of the 22 accused in the 1994 arms landing case.
According to the prosecution, a team of Porbandar police had taken Jadav to Bhatt's residence in Porbandar on July 5, 1997, from the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad on a transfer warrant.
Jadav was given electric shocks on different parts of his body, including his private parts. His son was also given electric shocks.
The complainant later informed the court of the judicial magistrate about the torture, following which an inquiry was ordered. Based on the evidence, the court registered a case on December 31, 1998, and issued a summons to Bhatt and Chau.
On April 15, 2013, the court ordered an FIR against Bhatt and Chau.
Bhatt is undergoing life imprisonment in a 1990 Jamnagar custodial death case.
In March 2024, the former IPS officer was also sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by a court at Palanpur in Banaskantha district in a 1996 case related to planting drugs to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer.
He is also an accused in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots cases along with activist Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat director general of police R B Sreekumar.
Bhatt, who was removed from police service by the Gujarat government over unauthorised absence, moved the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat High Court's January 9, 2024 order dismissing his appeal.
The high court had upheld the conviction of Bhatt and co-accused Pravinsinh Zala under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC for murder by the sessions court in Jamnagar on June 20, 2019.
What was the case?
Sanjiv Bhatt, then Additional SP, was involved in the detention of around 150 individuals on October 30, 1990, following a communal riot in Jamjodhpur town. The unrest had erupted after a ‘bandh’ (shutdown) call against the halting of BJP leader L.K. Advani's 'rath yatra' for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. One of the detained individuals, Prabhudas Vaishnani, died in the hospital after his release, leading to allegations of custodial torture.
Bhatt gained national attention in 2002 when he filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing then Chief Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the Gujarat riots. However, these allegations were later debunked by a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Bhatt was suspended from service in 2011 and dismissed by the Ministry of Home Affairs in August 2015 for unauthorized absence.
(With inputs from PTI)
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Business NewsNewsEx-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt acquitted in 1997 custodial torture case; details here
First Published:8 Dec 2024, 09:57 AM IST
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