Gujarat Court Acquits Ex-IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt in 1997 Custodial Torture Case

NEW DELHI: A Gujarat court in Porbandar has acquitted former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1997 custodial torture case, stating that the prosecution was unable to "prove the case beyond reasonable doubt".
Additional chief judicial magistrate Mukesh Pandya, while pronouncing the verdict on Saturday, acquitted Bhatt under the benefit of doubt from lack of evidence.

Case against Bhatt, who was Superintendent of Police (SP) in Porbandar at that time, was filed under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) with the intention of causing grievous hurt to obtain a confession.
Charges were also laid against constable Vajubhai Chau but the case against him was abated upon his death.

The court noted that the prosecution could not establish that the complainant, Naran Jadav, was tortured to force a confession.
It also highlighted that the necessary sanction to prosecute Bhatt, a public servant discharging his duties at the time, had not been obtained.

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The case arose from an FIR lodged on April 15, 2013, in accordance with a court order in the light of Jadav's complaint of 1997.

Jadav, one of the accused in the 1994 arms landing case, claimed that he and his son were given electric shocks on various parts of their bodies, including private areas, while in police custody. He claimed that on 5 July 1997, he was taken from Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad to Bhatt's residence in Porbandar, where the torture took place.
His complaint to a judicial magistrate led to a probe, following which a case was registered on 31 December 1998 and summons were issued to Bhatt and Chau.

This is the latest legal development for Bhatt, who is serving life imprisonment in the 1990 custodial death case of Prabhudas Vaishnani, one of 150 people detained in Jamjodhpur during a riot following a bandh linked to BJP leader L K Advani's halted Rath Yatra.

Bhatt was also found guilty in a 1996 case of planting drugs to frame a lawyer based out of Rajasthan for which he received a 20-year jail term in March 2024.

Former IPS officer also faces charges of fabricating evidence in connection with 2002 Gujarat riots alongside activist Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar.

Bhatt, who was dismissed from police service in 2015 for "unauthorised absence", had challenged his conviction in the 1990 case before the Gujarat high court but his appeal was dismissed in January 2024.

Bhatt made headlines in 2011 after filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court, alleging that then-Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was complicit in the 2002 riots. However, these claims were rejected by a Special Investigation Team assigned to probe the matter.

With this acquittal, Bhatt has shaken off one of the several legal battles, but he remains behind the bars in Rajkot Central Jail, serving his sentences for previous convictions.

(With inputs from agencies)