A court in Gujarat on Wednesday convicted former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a drugs seizure case dating back to 1996. The court is expected to pronounce the quantum of punishment on Thursday.
The sessions court in Palanpur held Bhatt guilty of falsely implicating a Rajasthan-based lawyer, Sumer Singh Rajpurohit, by claiming that police had seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur where the lawyer was staying. The case was lodged when Bhatt was the district Superintendent of Police.
However, the Rajasthan Police later said Mr. Rajpurohit was falsely implicated by the Banaskantha police to compel him to settle a property dispute. Former police inspector IB Vyas had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding an inquiry. The prosecution submitted in the court that Bhatt, along with other co-accused, had conspired to frame Mr. Rajpurohit.
This is the second case in which Bhatt -- who was removed from service by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2015, a year after the BJP came to power at the Centre -- has been convicted. Earlier, he was convicted in a 1990 case of custodial torture in Jamnagar district.
