The Gujarat High Court in the case observed and has dismissed the appeal filed by Sanjiv Bhatt, who being the former Indian Police Service officer, challenging his conviction and life imprisonment sentence imposed by the Jamnagar Court in connection with an alleged case of custodial torture and death dating back to 1990.In the present case, the said incidents relate to the death of one Prabhudas Madhavji Vaishnani in November 1990, which was allegedly due to custodial torture.
The court observed that Bhatt was the Assistant Superintendent of Police Jamnagar, who, along with other officers, took into custody about 133 persons, which includes the Vaishnani, for rioting during a Bharat Bandh.
Therefore, Vaishnani, who was kept in custody for nine days, died ten days after release on bail and as per medical records, the cause of death was renal failure.
An Fir was registered against Bhatt and a few other officers over the allegations of custodial torture and the cognizance of the case was taken by the Magistrate in 1995.
Further, the court stated that the trial remained stayed till 2011 due to a stay by the Gujarat High Court. Later the stay was being vacated and trial commenced.
The Session court in June 2019 in the State’s Jamnagar district sentenced Bhatt and a police constable (Pravinsinh Zala) to life imprisonment in the case after convicting them under section 302, murder, after convicting them under section 302, murder, section 323, punishment for voluntarily causing hurt and section 506 (1), punishment for offence of criminal intimidation of the Indian Penal Code, IPC.
The court observed that the police constables Pravinsinh Jadeja, Anopsinh Jethva and Kesubha Dolubha Jadeja and police sub-inspectors Shailesh Pandya and Dipakkumar Bhagwandas Shah were also found guilty of custodial torture and were convicted under Section 323 and Section 506 (1) of the Indian Penal Code, IPC.
The court stated while challenging the conviction of them that Zala, Bhatt, Shah and Pandya moved the High Court in 2019. The bench comprising of Justice Ashutosh Shastri and Justice Sandeep N. Bhatt in the case observed and has stated that the reasoning given by the Jamnagar Court was correct and hence, there was no such reason to interfere with the order of conviction. Accordingly, the court dismissed the criminal appeal.