Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt acquitted in 1997 custodial torture case
The former officer will remain in jail where he is serving a life sentence in a 1990 custodial death case and a 20-year sentence in a 1996 drug-planting case.
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A court in Gujarat’s Porbandar district on Saturday acquitted former Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1997 custodial torture case, Live Law reported.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Mukesh Pandya noted that the prosecution had failed to “prove the case beyond reasonable doubt” and did not obtain permission to prosecute Bhatt, who was the superintendent of police in Porbandar at the time of the alleged incident.
Bhatt faced charges of causing hurt to extort a confession and causing hurt with a dangerous weapon under sections of the Indian Penal Code.
The case against Bhatt was registered on a complaint by Naran Jadhav, who accused the former police officer of torturing him in custody to extract a confession in a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act and Arms Act case.
The complaint alleged that on July 5, 1997, Jadhav – one of 22 persons accused in a 1994 arms recovery case – was taken from Sabarmati Central Jail to Bhatt’s house in Porbandar, where he was tortured with electric shocks.
Jadhav had filed a formal complaint before a judicial magistrate who ordered an inquiry. In December 1998, a case was registered against Bhatt and a police constable. A first information report was filed in 2013 but the case against the constable was dismissed after his...
