Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Apr 29: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, seeking release on bail and suspension of his sentence in a 1990 case involving custodial death.
A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta was addressing an appeal submitted by Bhatt against the Gujarat High Court's decision, which had upheld the trial court's order convicting him and sentencing him to life imprisonment.
The apex court clarified that the rejection of the current bail application would not impede the merits-based hearing of his appeal and directed that the matter be heard expeditiously.
Previously, the Gujarat High Court had also dismissed Bhatt's appeal challenging his conviction and sentence. A division bench of Justices Ashutosh Shastri and Sandeep N. Bhatt had stated, "We are of the view that the trial court has not committed any error in passing the impugned judgment and therefore, no interference is required in the present appeals. We are of the view that prosecution has proved the case against the respective accused/convicts and hence, no interference is required in the impugned judgment and order passed by the Ld. Trial Court."
The High Court further added, "We, also on our independent look, perusal and scrutiny of evidence, found that the conclusion arrived at by the learned trial judge in passing an order, impugned in this proceeding, is in consonance with material on record and in accordance with law and there is no element of perversity of any nature."
In 2019, a Jamnagar Sessions Judge had found Bhatt guilty of offences punishable under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 506(1) (criminal intimidation) read with sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Bhatt, who was dismissed from service in 2015, has been in custody since 2018.
Adding to his legal woes, in March 2024, a Palanpur sessions court in the Banaskantha district sentenced Bhatt to 20 years of imprisonment for his involvement in a 1996 narcotics case. The trial court found him guilty of planting drugs to falsely implicate a Rajasthan-based lawyer in Palanpur, where Bhatt was serving as the Superintendent of Police at the time. Bhatt had arrested lawyer Sumersingh Rajpurohit under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, alleging the discovery of opium in his hotel room.