The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Gujarat government, seeking its response to a plea filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt. Bhatt is challenging his life sentence in connection with a 1990 custodial death case. The notice is to be returnable within four weeks, as ordered by a bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Prasanna B Varale, who have also decided to tag Bhatt’s appeal with other related matters.
Sanjiv Bhatt, who was sentenced by a Jamnagar sessions court on June 20, 2019, for the murder of a detainee following a communal riot in 1990, had his appeal dismissed by the Gujarat High Court on January 9, 2024. The High Court upheld his conviction, along with co-accused Pravinsinh Zala, under Sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
The case dates back to October 30, 1990, when Bhatt, then an additional superintendent of police, detained about 150 people during a bandh call in Jamjodhpur town. This bandh was in protest against the halting of BJP leader L.K. Advani’s rath yatra aimed at constructing a Ram temple in Ayodhya. One of the detainees, Prabhudas Vaishnani, later died in hospital following his release, leading his brother to accuse Bhatt and six other police officials of torturing Vaishnani, resulting in his death.
Bhatt, a controversial figure, has also been implicated in other legal battles, including allegations of falsely implicating a man for drug possession and fabricating evidence in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots. His contentious career saw him filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court, accusing then-chief minister Narendra Modi of involvement in the 2002 Gujarat riots—a claim that was later debunked by a special investigation team.
The former officer was suspended from service in 2011 and subsequently dismissed in August 2015 by the Ministry of Home Affairs for unauthorized absence. In addition to Bhatt and Zala’s imprisonment, the Jamnagar court sentenced five other policemen to two years in prison for related offenses under Sections 323 and 506, although their bail bonds were canceled.
Bhatt was represented by a legal team of Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Devadatt Kamat, along with, Advocates Rajesh G. Inamdar and Shashwat Anand.
