Today, On 29th April, The Supreme Court rejected ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s plea for bail and suspension of his life sentence but directed speedy hearing of his appeal pending before the top court.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court denied a bail application from former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who sought to suspend his life sentence in a 1990 custodial death case.
A bench consisting of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta indicated that they were not inclined to grant bail or suspend the sentence. However, they instructed that Bhatt’s appeal to the Supreme Court would be prioritized for hearing.
The bench stated while delivering its ruling,
“We are not inclined to grant Sanjiv Bhatt bail. The prayer for bail is dismissed. The hearing of the appeal shall not be affected. The hearing of the appeal is expedited,”
The case originates from an incident in 1990 when Bhatt was the additional superintendent of police in Jamnagar district. He had detained around 133 individuals under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) following a communal riot prompted by a Bharat Bandh called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on October 30 that year.
This protest was in response to the arrest of Lal Krishna Advani, the then BJP chief, who was leading a Rath Yatra to Ayodhya for the Ram Mandir cause.
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Among those detained, Prabhudas Vaishnani died shortly after being released from custody. His family accused Bhatt and his colleagues of subjecting him to custodial torture. Vaishnani had spent nine days in police custody and died of renal failure after being released on bail.
An FIR was subsequently filed against Bhatt and other officers for custodial death, with a Magistrate taking cognizance of the matter in 1995. In total, seven police officers were implicated, including two sub-inspectors and three police constables.
A Sessions Court in Jamnagar convicted Bhatt and another officer, sentencing them to life imprisonment.
In January 2024, the Gujarat High Court dismissed Bhatt’s appeal against the conviction and sentence. He then approached the Supreme Court, which issued a notice to the Gujarat government regarding the case in August 2024.
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The court later deliberated on the suspension of the sentence before reserving its verdict.
Bhatt is also implicated in two other cases: a 1996 drug planting case and a 1997 custodial torture case. He was convicted in the 1996 case and sentenced to 20 years in prison, with his appeal currently pending before the Gujarat High Court.
He was acquitted in the 1997 case by a Magistrate court in December 2024.
Case Title: SANJIV KUMAR RAJENDRABHAI BHATT vs THE STATE OF GUJARAT AND ANR., SLP(Crl) No. 11736/2024