Sanjeev Bhatt: According to the results of the discussion before the Lok Sabha elections, former IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt was found guilty after 28 years.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected former IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt’s plea seeking suspension of sentence in the 1990 custodial death case, as the Gujarat High Court is now hearing his appeal against the conviction.
When the case came up for hearing today, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Bhatt, said the petition was being withdrawn as the Gujarat High Court was hearing the appeal on a daily basis.
Request made by Kapil Sibal:
Sibal requested that the court be asked to decide the appeal without being influenced by the observations made in the earlier order refusing to suspend the sentence.
Justice M.R. Shah and Justice B.V. Nagarathna’s bench dismissed the special leave petition while withdrawing it.
The bench said in the order that it is needless to say that the appeal will be decided on merits in accordance with the law, and the observations made while considering the suspension of sentence cannot affect the appeal.
The bench was hearing Bhatt’s 2020 SLP against the September 2019 decision of a division bench of the Gujarat High Court, which had refused to suspend his sentence.
Bhatt was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Jamnagar Sessions Court in June 2019 in the case of the custodial death of Jamjodhpur resident Prabhudas Vaishnani in November 1990. Former IPS officer Bhatt filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in 2011 accusing then-Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Involvement in the 2002 riots. Bhatt is currently lodged in Palanpur jail. The SLP was filed before the Supreme Court, challenging the Gujarat High Court’s refusal to suspend his sentence.
The Gujarat High Court had refused to suspend his sentence in October 2019. The High Court had refused saying that he had little respect for the courts and had deliberately tried to mislead the courts.
Earlier, Justice VB Mayani, who was also on the second bench along with Justice Harsha Devani, had recused himself from hearing the bail plea of Bhatt and another convict Praveen Singh Zala, saying “not before me”.
In the petition filed in the Supreme Court, Bhatt argued that the High Court had failed to appreciate the fact that the state government had started prosecuting him since 2011, when he came out against Narendra Modi. Earlier, there was no case registered against Bhatt by the state.
The incident relates to the death of Prabhudas Madhavji Vaishnani in November, 1990, allegedly due to custodial torture. Bhatt was then the Assistant Superintendent of Police of Jamnagar, who along with other officials had detained around 133 people, including Vaishnani, on charges of rioting during the Bharat Bandh.
Vaishnani, who was in custody for nine days, died ten days after being released on bail. According to medical records, the cause of death was kidney injury.
After his death an FIR was registered against Bhatt and some other officers for custodial torture and the magistrate took cognizance of the case in 1995. However, the case was stayed by the Gujarat High Court. The stay was later lifted and the hearing of the case resumed in 2011.
Bhatt argued that the High Court failed to take into account that the alleged custodial death occurred several days after the prisoner was released from police custody on November 18, 1990.
In 2015, the dismissed IPS officer approached the Supreme Court alleging that though the prosecution has listed around 300 witnesses, only 32 have been examined in the trial, leaving out many important witnesses.
Bhatt said that three policemen who were part of the team investigating the crime and some other witnesses who had denied any incident of custodial violence were not examined by the prosecution. He argued that the case against him is part of “political vendetta”.
Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in April 2011 accusing then Chief Minister Narendra Modi of being involved in the 2002 riots. Bhatt claimed that he had attended a meeting called by then Chief Minister Modi on February 27, 2002, the day of the communal riots, when the state police was reportedly directed not to take any action against the perpetrators of the violence.
The court appointed SIT but gave clean chit to Modi.
Bhatt was removed from the police service in 2015 on the grounds of “unauthorized absence”.
The Supreme Court had in October 2015 dismissed Bhatt’s petition, which had sought the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the Gujarat government.
