Gujarat court convicts Sanjiv Bhatt for planting drugs on lawyer in 1996
- In Reports
- 10:53 PM, Mar 27, 2024
- Myind Staff
On Wednesday, a Gujarat court convicted former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt for falsely implicating a lawyer from Rajasthan in a drugs case during his tenure as district superintendent of police (SP) of Banaskantha in 1996.
This is the second case in which Sanjiv Bhatt has been convicted; the first was in June 2019 when a Jamnagar court sentenced him to life imprisonment in a custodial death case in October 1990.
Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife Shweta said her husband was innocent. “The court delivered conviction in the case. I will provide further details tomorrow after the court announces the sentencing. This case is entirely fabricated, and my husband had no role in it,” Shweta Bhatt told reporters after additional district and sessions judge JN Thakkar delivered a guilty verdict on Wednesday.
The sessions court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on Thursday.
The incident in question pertains to the 1996 arrest of a lawyer from Rajasthan during Sanjiv Bhatt's term as Banaskantha SP. Allegedly, drugs were discovered in the lawyer's hotel room in Palanpur during that time.
Bhatt was accused of fabricating evidence against the lawyer by allegedly placing 1.5 kg of opium in the lawyer's room, purportedly to pressure the lawyer into relinquishing a commercial property in Rajasthan's Pali town.
A probe by the Rajasthan police later revealed that the lawyer was falsely implicated and allegedly abducted by Banaskantha Police from his residence in Pali.
In September 2018, Bhatt, along with his subordinate IB Vyas, was arrested following an order by the Gujarat High Court for an inquiry into the incident. Vyas later became an approver in the case. Bhatt had been dismissed from the services in 2015.
Bhat is currently serving life imprisonment in a custody death case in 1990 when he was an additional SP in Jamnagar district. In this case, Bhatt detained over 130 individuals under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) after a communal riot after the Bharatiya Janata Party and Vishwa Hindu Parishad called for a Bharat Bandh.
One detainee, Prabhudas Vaishnani, later died in hospital, leading his family to allege custodial torture.
An FIR was registered against Bhatt and other officers for custodial death and cognisance was taken by a magistrate in 1995. Seven police officers including two sub-inspectors and three police constables were accused in this custody death case.
Bhatt approached the Gujarat High Court against the sessions court convicting him in the custody death case in 2019. In January this year, the high court upheld his conviction and life sentence.
Image source: PTI
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