More than two decades after the incident, a sessions court in Gujarat’s Palanpur on March 28 sentenced sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt to 20 years in jail in a 1996 case involving planting of drugs to frame a lawyer.
The sentencing was pronounced on March 28, a day after the court found Bhatt guilty of falsely implicating a Rajasthan-based lawyer by claiming, in 1996, that police had seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur where the lawyer was staying.
Bhatt was Banaskantha Superintendent of Police at the time of incident and a raid was carried out at a hotel at his behest to frame the lawyer.
The court also clarified that Bhatt has to serve the 20-year sentence consecutively, which means it will start after the end of the life sentence in the Jamnagar custodial death case that he is serving at present.
In jail since 2018
In 2015, Bhatt was sacked from the force by the Ministry of Home Affairs and has been behind bars since 2018 when he was arrested and subsequently sentenced in custodial death case.
On Wednesday, Additional District and Sessions Judge J.N. Thakkar convicted Bhatt under relevant Sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and the Indian Penal Code. The quantum of punishment was pronounced on Thursday.
The court also slapped a fine of ₹2 lakh and stated that he would have to spend an additional year in jail if he fails to pay it.
The former police officer was held guilty under Sections 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 465 (forgery) and 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The court has also held him guilty under various Sections of the NDPS Act, including Section 21 (possession of drugs), 27A (financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders) and 58-2 (wilfully and maliciously giving false information to arrest someone or conduct search).
To move HC
After the court’s ruling, Bhatt’s lawyer S.B. Thakor told media persons that his client would challenge the verdict in the High Court.
“The court only presumed that opium was purchased and planted by him [Bhatt]. Otherwise, there was no concrete evidence to prove that charge,” his lawyer said, reiterating his contention that there was no evidence to hold him guilty in the case.
In 1996 when Bhatt was the Banaskatha district police chief, a police team had arrested a Rajasthan lawyer Sumer Singh Rajpurohit under the NDPS Act after claiming drugs (opium) was seized from the hotel room in Palanpur in which the latter was staying.
However, the Rajasthan police had claimed that Mr. 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 had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the case.
In 2018, the police acted in the case and arrested Bhatt in connection with the case and was taken to the Palanpur jail.
In 2023, the Supreme Court had dismissed a plea by Bhatt seeking transfer of the trial in the drug planting case to another sessions court alleging bias. He had also sought directions for recording of the trial court proceedings.
The Supreme Court had dismissed Bhatt’s plea and imposed a cost of ₹3 lakh on him for alleging bias against a lower court judge conducting trial in the case.
During the pendency of the trial in the case, a sessions court in Jamnagar, in 2019, convicted him of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case.
The custodial death had taken place when Bhatt was Additional Superintendent of Police in Jamnagar district in 1990.
