Supreme Court rejects plea by ex-IPS Sanjiv Bhatt for bail, suspension of life sentence

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea filed by former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking bail and suspension of his sentence of life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case [Sanjiv Kumar Rajendrabhai Bhatt vs State of Gujarat]..A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said that it was not inclined to suspend the sentence and release Bhatt on bail. However, the Bench directed that the appeal filed by Bhatt before the top court will be heard on priority."We are not inclined to grant Sanjiv Bhatt bail. The prayer of bail is dismissed. The hearing of appeal shall not be affected. The hearing of appeal is expedited," the Bench said pronouncing the verdict in court..The case pertains to an incident which took place in 1990 when Bhatt was an additional superintendent of police at Jamnagar district.He had detained nearly 133 persons under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activites (Prevention) Act (TADA) after a communal riot broke out there.The riots took place after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had called for a Bharat Bandh on October 30 that year, to protest the arrest of Lal Krishna Advani, the then BJP chief, who had started a Rath Yatra procession to Ayodhya for the Ram Mandir issue. Among the detained persons, one Prabhudas Vaishnani died after being released from custody.His family alleged that he was subjected to custodial torture by Bhatt and his colleagues.Vaishnani was in police custody for nine days but after being released on bail, he had died of renal failure.Subsequently, an FIR was registered against Bhatt and other officers for custodial death and cognisance was taken by a Magistrate in 1995.A total of seven police officers were accused in the case including two sub-inspectors and three police constables. .A Sessions Court in Gujarat's Jamnagar convicted Bhatt and another policeman and sentenced them to life imprisonment.The Gujarat High Court in January 2024 dismissed Bhatt's appeal against the conviction and sentence.He then approached the Supreme Court which issued notice to the Gujarat government in the matter in August 2024. The Court then heard the aspect of suspension of sentence before reserving its verdict on the same. .Bhatt is an accused in two other cases as well - a 1996 drug planting case and a 1997 custodial torture case. He was convicted by a sessions court in the 1996 case and sentenced to 20 years in prison for the same. His appeal against the same is pending before the Gujarat High Court.He was acquitted in the latter case in December 2024 by a Magistrate court..[Read Order]