The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday dismissed a Plea by IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt against his conviction and life imprisonment sentence imposed by the Jamnagar Court in a 1990 custodial death case in which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. A division bench of Justices Ashutosh Shastri and Sandeep Bhatt upheld the conviction of Sanjiv Bhatt and co-accused Pravinsinh Zala under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
The bench also dismissed an appeal filed by the Gujrat government seeking to enhance the sentences of five other accused who were acquitted of murder but convicted under sections 323 and 506.
The division bench in its order said that ‘’We have also gone through the reasoning recorded by the trial court while convicting the concerned accused persons for offences punishable under section 302 of the IPC,’’
‘’From the evidence based on record, we are of the opinion that the trial court has rightly convicted (five) accused for offences punishable under sections 323,’’ the bench added. While Bhatt and Zala are lodged in jail, the court cancelled the bail bonds of these five accused who are out of jail.
On June 20, 2019,the sessions court in Jamnagar had convicted Bhatt and another police officer, Pravinsinh Zala, of murder. On October 30, 1990, then additional superintendent of police Bhatt detained around 150 people following a communal riot in Jamjodhpur town following a ‘bandh’ call against the halting of BJP leader L K Advani’s ‘rath yatra’ for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Prabhudas Vaishnani, one of the detained persons, died in hospital after his release. Vaishnani’s brother accused Bhatt and six other police officials of torturing him in custody and causing his death.