1997 Custodial Torture Case | Gujarat Court Acquits Ex-IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt

A court in Gujarat's Porbandar District last week acquitted former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in connection with a 1997 custodial torture case. Acquitting Bhatt, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Mukesh Pandya observed that the prosecution could not "prove the case beyond reasonable doubt" and that appropriate sanction to prosecuted Bhatt, the then superintendent of police (SP) of Porbandar, was not obtained by the prosecution. Bhatt, currently in Rajkot Jail, is already serving 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. Bhatt was facing charges under sections 330 (causing hurt to extort confession) and 324 (causing hurt with dangerous weapons) of the IPC pursuant to a complaint lodged by one Naran Jadhav accusing Bhatt of 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.Jadhav was one of the 22 accused in the 1994 arms recovery case. According to the prosecution, on July 5, 1997, a police team had transferred Jadav from Ahmedabad's Sabarmati Central Jail to Bhatt's house in Porbandar, under a transfer warrant and during this very period, Jadhav was subjected to torture by giving him electric shocks.Later, Jadhav made a formal complaint before a Judicial Magistrate with regard to the alleged torturous treatment meted to him at the instance of Bhatt. Subsequently, the Judicial Magistrate ordered an enquiry. Based on the evidence against Bhatt, a case was registered in December 1998, and summons were issued to Bhatt and a police constable, Chau. In 2013, an FIR was lodged against them. The case against Chau abated on his death later on.In March this year, a Sessions court at Palanpur in Gujarat's Banaskantha district sentenced Bhatt to 20 years in jail in the 1996 drug-planting case.Bhatt is also facing an FIR pertaining to the 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.[With Inputs from PTI]Click Here To Read/Download Judgment

1997 Custodial Torture Case | Gujarat Court Acquits Ex-IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt

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