News Brief
Gujarat Court Acquits Former IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt In 1997 Custodial Torture Case
Jailed ex-IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt
A court in Gujarat's Porbandar has acquitted former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1997 custodial torture case.
The court stated that the prosecution failed to prove the case "beyond reasonable doubt."
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Mukesh Pandya Saturday acquitted Bhatt, the then superintendent of police (SP) of Porbandar, in a case registered against him under IPC sections pertaining to causing grievous hurt to obtain confession and other provisions by giving him the benefit of the doubt due to lack of evidence.
Bhatt is currently serving a life sentence for a custodial death in Jamnagar in 1990.
Additionally, in March 2024, he received a 20-year sentence for a 1996 case involving planting drugs to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer in Palanpur.
He is currently lodged in the Rajkot Central Jail.
The court also pointed out that the necessary sanction to prosecute the accused, who was a public servant performing his duties at the time, had not been obtained in the case.
The charges against Bhatt and constable Vajubhai Chau, who passed away during the trial, included IPC sections 330 (causing hurt to extract confession) and 324 (causing hurt with dangerous weapons).
These charges stemmed from a complaint by Naran Jadav, who accused them of subjecting him to physical and mental torture while in police custody, aiming to extract a confession in a TADA and Arms Act case.
Bhatt is undergoing life imprisonment in a 1990 Jamnagar custodial death case.
In March 2024, Bhatt was also sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by a court at Palanpur in Banaskantha district in a 1996 case related to planting drugs to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer.
