In a significant development, former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on March 28, by a Sessions court in Palanpur, Banaskantha district, Gujarat, in connection with the 1996 drug-planting case. The sentence, handed down by Additional Sessions Judge JN Thakkar, comes after Bhatt was found guilty of multiple charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985 and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Bhatt has been convicted under NDPS sections 21(c) and 27A for supporting illicit traffic and harbouring offenders, as well as fined two lakh rupees. Additionally, he was found guilty of violating several sections of the NDPS Act, including abetment, criminal conspiracy, and vexatious entry, search, seizure, and arrest, along with various IPC sections such as forgery, using forged documents, and criminal conspiracy.
The case stems from an incident in 1996 when Sumer Singh Rajpurohit, a lawyer from Rajasthan, was falsely accused by the Banaskantha police of possessing 1.5 kg of opium at a hotel in Palanpur. The drugs were planted as part of a conspiracy to vacate property in Rajasthan’s Pali district, with Bhatt, then district superintendent of police, allegedly involved. Inspector IB Vyas from Palanpur’s local crime branch was also implicated as a co-accused but later turned approver in 2021.
The prosecution argued that Bhatt and his accomplices orchestrated the drug planting to frame Rajpurohit under the NDPS Act. Despite attempts to transfer the trial to Banaskantha district, the Gujarat High Court denied Bhatt’s appeal last August 2023.
The case remained dormant for nearly two decades until the Gujarat High Court ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the false complaint against Bhatt and others in April 2018. Subsequently, in September 2018, Bhatt was arrested in connection with the case, marking a 22-year span since the incident.
Notably, Bhatt has faced previous legal troubles and is currently serving a life sentence for custodial torture and death in another case. In 2019, he was convicted for a 1990s custodial death in Jamnagar, with his appeal against the ruling dismissed by the Gujarat High Court in January.
Currently, Sanjiv Bhatt, who was dismissed from the force in 2015, is serving a life sentence for his involvement in a case concerning custodial torture and death. The former IPS officer has faced conviction twice in separate criminal cases. In 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in a custodial death dating back to the 1990s in Jamnagar. Despite his petition against the trial court’s decision, the Gujarat High Court upheld the conviction in January, thereby affirming the life term in the case.
As the legal saga surrounding Sanjiv Bhatt continues, his convictions underscore the complexities and consequences of abuse of power within law enforcement agencies.
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