A court in Gujarat on Thursday sentenced sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt to life imprisonment in a custodial death case dating back to 1990, when he was posted as an additional superintendent of police in this district.
Bhatt, who had earlier levelled allegations against thenGujarat chief minister Narendra Modi over his handling of the 2002 Gujaratriots, has been behind the bars in Palanpur for the last nine months in anothercase of allegedly framing a man in a drug-seizure matter.
The Gujarat-cadre officer was suspended from the IndianPolice Service (IPS) in 2011 and sacked by the Union Ministry of Home Affairsin August, 2015 on the ground of “unauthorised absence from service”.
On Thursday, the Jamnagar-based court of sessions judge D MVyas convicted Bhatt and police constable Pravinsinh Zala under section 302(murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced them to life in jail inthe 29-year-old custodial death case.
Five others — sub-inspectors Dipak Shah and Sailesh Pandyaand constables Pravinsinh Jadeja, Anopsinh Jethva and Keshubha Jadeja — weresentenced to two years in jail for custodial torture.
Bhatt’s wife Shweta Bhatt described the verdict as”injustice”.
“The injustice is very apparent. We will fight againstthis injustice. But I will be able to make further comments only afterconsulting my lawyers,” Shweta Bhatt, who contested the 2012 GujaratAssembly election against Modi from Maninagar in Ahmedabad, told PTI.
On October 30, 1990, Bhatt, then an additionalsuperintendent of police, had detained around 150 people following a communalriot in Jamjodhpur town of Jamnagar. The riot broke out after a bandh callagainst the halting of BJP leader L K Advani’s rath-yatra agitation for a Ramtemple in Ayodhya.
One of those detained, Prabhudas Vaishnani, died in ahospital after his release.
His brother Amrutbhai lodged a complaint alleging that Bhattand other police officials tortured Vaishnani in custody, causing his death.
The case could not proceed for years as the state governmentdid not give its nod for prosecuting Bhatt and others. The sanction forprosecution was given later.
During the trial, public prosecutor Tushar Gokani contendedthat Bhatt’s role in the torture was evident.
On September 5, 2018, Bhatt was arrested in another case, inwhich he was accused of falsely implicating a man for possession of drugs inPalanpur in 1996. The trial in the case is going on.
Bhatt hit the headlines when he alleged in an affidavitbefore the Supreme Court that after the Godhra train-burning incident ofFebruary 27, 2002, Modi, at a meeting, had asked senior police officers to letthe majority community vent its anger.The Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointedby the apex court to investigate the 2002 riots had concluded that Bhatt, beinga very junior officer then, was not present at the meeting.