Ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt's bail plea in 2-decade-old drug seizure case rejected

The Gujarat High Court Thursday rejected a bail application filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in connection with a two-decade-old drug seizure case.

Justice Sonia Gokani refused to grant relief to Bhatt, who is behind the bars since September last year in connection with a 23-year-old drug seizure case.

The former Gujarat-cadre IPS officer had approached the high court after a sessions court in Banaskantha district turned down his bail plea in December last year.

Bhatt, who was sacked from service in 2015, was a superintendent of police in Banaskantha district in 1996.

The district police under Bhatt had arrested one Sumersingh Rajpurohit, a Rajasthan-based lawyer, in 1996, claiming that they have seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur town where the latter was staying.

However, the Rajasthan police later said Rajpurohit was falsely implicated by the Banaskantha police to compel him to transfer a disputed property located at Pali in Rajasthan.

Former police inspector I B Vyas moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter.

In June last year, the high court handed over the probe to the state CID, and Bhatt was arrested in September.