SC notice to Guj govt on plea against conviction in custodial death case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Gujarat government's response on former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt's plea against his conviction in a 1990 custodial death case in which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

"Issue notice returnable in four weeks," a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Prasanna B Varale said. The court also tagged the appeal with other matters related to the case.

Bhatt has moved the top court challenging the Gujarat High Court's January 9, 2024 order dismissing his appeal. The 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 but convicted under Sections 323 and 506.

While Bhatt and Zala are behind bars, the court cancelled the bail bonds of the five other accused who are out of jail.

"We have also gone through the reasoning recorded by the trial court while convicting the concerned accused persons for offences punishable under section 302 of the IPC," the division bench said while reading out the order.

"From the evidence based on record, we are of the opinion that the trial court has rightly convicted (five) accused...for offences punishable under Sections 323," the judges had said.

Bhatt and Zala, both police officers, were convicted for murder by the sessions court in Jamnagar on June 20, 2019.

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 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.

Bhatt had also hit the headlines when he filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court alleging then chief minister Narendra Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. The allegations were debunked by a special investigation team.

He was suspended from service in 2011 and sacked by the Ministry of Home Affairs in August 2015 for 'unauthorised absence'.

In the custodial death case, the Jamnagar court sentenced the other five policemen -- sub-inspectors Dipak Shah and Sailesh Pandya, and constables Pravinsih Jadeja, Anopsinh Jethva and Keshubha Jadeja -- to two years in prison.