Ex IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt Sentenced to Life
JAMNAGAR, (Gujarat): A week after the Supreme Court refused to entertain sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s plea to examine 11 additional witnesses in a 30-year-old custodial death case, a Jamnagar court on Thursday awarded him and head constable Pravinsinh Zala life imprisonment.
Bhatt had moved the apex court challenging the Gujarat High Court order that had denied his request to summon additional witnesses for examination during the trial. The Supreme Court had, however, directed the lower court to conclude the trial by June 20.
According to the case details, Bhatt, who was posted as additional superintendent of police in Jamnagar during the communal riots in 1990, had detained 133 people.
Prabhu Vaishnani, one of the detainees, died in hospital on November 18 after he was released from police custody. Later, Prabhu’s brother Amrut Vaishnani lodged a complaint against Bhatt and other police personnel for custodial torture.
Bhatt was suspended in 2011 on charges of remaining absent from duty without permission and misuse of official vehicles and later sacked in August 2015.
The case dates back to 1990 when Sanjiv Bhatt was posted as Additional Superintendent of Police in the state’s Jamnagar district. He had detained approximately 150 people during a communal riot in Jam Jodhpur town. One of those arrested, Prabhudas Vaishnani, died in hospital after his release.(With Agency Inputs ).
