The Supreme Court dismissed the bail plea of convicted former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt on Tuesday in a 1990 custodial death case in which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said there was no merit in his plea for bail or the suspension of sentence in the case.
“We are not inclined to enlarge the appellant Sanjiv Kumar Bhatt on bail. However, we make it clear that the observations made herein above are restricted to the prayer for bail only and will have no bearing on the appeals of the appellant and the co-accused. The prayers sought by the appellant, Sanjiv Kumar Bhatt, for the grant of bail are dismissed. Hearing of the appeal is directed to be expedited,” Justice Mehta said while reading out the order.
The appeal of Bhatt against the conviction and life imprisonment is presently pending in the top court. Bhatt has moved the top court in 2024, challenging the Gujarat High Court’s January 9, 2024, order dismissing his appeal.
The high court also upheld the conviction of Bhatt and co-accused Pravinsinh Zala under Sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
The high court had dismissed the state government’s appeal seeking to enhance the sentences of five other accused who were acquitted of murder charges but convicted under Sections 323 and 506.
On October 30, 1990, then additional superintendent of police, Bhatt, detained around 150 people following a communal riot in Jamjodhpur town following a ‘bandh’ call against the halting of BJP leader L K Advani’s ‘rath yatra’ for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Prabhudas Vaishnani, one of the detained persons, died in the hospital after his release. Vaishnani’s brother accused Bhatt and six other police officials of torturing him in custody and causing his death.
Bhatt was arrested on September 5, 2018, in another case where he is accused of falsely implicating a man for drug possession. The trial in the case is underway. He is also an accused in a 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.