Sanjiv Bhatt, Former IPS Officer, Sentenced To Life In 1990 Custodial Death Case

Expelled IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Gujarat court in a 1990 custodial death case, PTI reported.

The Jamnagar court, which pronounced his sentence, has not pronounce the quantum of sentence for six other policemen who have been convicted in the case, NDTV reported.

“The court found Pravinsinh Zala and Sanjiv Bhatt guilty under IPC section 302 and thus sentenced them to life imprisonment under IPC section 302. Rest of the accused were found guilty under section 323, 506 for custodial torture,” the special public prosecutors in the case said, Indian Express reported.

Bhatt was Additional Superintendent of Police in Jamnagar district and had detained around 150 people during a communal riot in Jam Jodhpur town in 1990, NDTV said. 

Prabhudas Vaishnani, one of those arrested, died in hospital after he was released. His brother filed an FIR in which Bhatt and six other policemen were named and accused of torturing Vaishnani.

Bhatt, who was sacked in 2015, is currently in judicial custody in Palanpur jail in a drug planting case. His plea for bail in this case was dismissed by the Supreme Court on 9 May.

Bhatt had moved the Supreme Court in 2015 for a probe into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots, when he was the state’s chief minister.

His plea also asked the top court to order an investigation into alleged collusion between government officials, defence lawyers, and BJP chief Amit Shah , in cases relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots and the fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

A SIT team, set up by the Supreme Court, had cleared Modi of wrongdoing in 2012.

In 2014, a special CBI court had exonerated Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.