Former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Sanjiv Bhatt, who had filed an affidavit in the Supreme court of India against the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Narendra Modi was acquitted in a 1997 custodial torture case by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate(ACJM) ,Porbander District court, Gujarat, on grounds that the prosecution failed to ‘prove the case beyond reasonable doubt’. The officer is currently in Rajkot Jail serving a life sentence in a 1997 case of custodial death and a 20-year jail term in a 1996 case relating to planting drugs to implicate a Rajasthan based lawyer in Palanpur. He currently stands acquitted of the custodial death case of 1997 by the ACJM.

Bhatt is being held in offences under several sections. In the year 2002 a FIR was registered against him, for alleged fabrication of evidence in the Gujarat communal riots case along with activist Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar.

Bhatt, a Gujarat- cadre police officer who had served as Superintendent of Police (SP) was also charged for offences under section 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession, or to compel restoration of property) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Also facing charges on a complaint by one Naran Jadhav, the officer , in that case was accused of physical and mental torture of the complainant while he was in police custody in order to extract a confession in a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and Arms Act. For the alleged offences he was charged under sections 330(causing hurt to extort confession)and 324 (causing hurt with dangerous weapons) of IPC. Out of the 22 accused in the 1994 arms recovery case, Jadhav was one among them.

It was the prosecution’s case that on July 5th ,1997, by way of a transfer warrant Jadhav was transferred by a police team from Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Central Jail to Bhatt’s house in Porbandar in Gujarat and Jadhav claimed that he was put through torture by electric shocks in that period. He lodged a formal complaint before a judicial Magistrate against this torture carried out under the instructions from Bhatt. An enquiry was ordered and based on evidence a case was registered against him in 1998, summons were issued to Bhatt and another police constable , Chau. A FIR was lodged against them but upon the death of Chau the case abated.

A sessions court in Jamnagar had held him guilty in March this year for causing the death of a detainee, who along with many others, was held in police custody during the communal riots that rocked Gujarat in the year 1989. Besides, he is also serving a 20-year sentence in a case of planting drugs after a sessions court in Banaskantha district of Gujarat charged him under provisions of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS)Act and the Indian Penal Code(IPC).

Stating that the prosecution failed to ‘prove the case beyond doubt’the court observed that the officer, was a public servant performing his duties at that time and therefore the required mandatory sanction to prosecute him was also not obtained. The court also observed that the complainant in the case was coerced into confessing to the crime and was forced to surrender by way of threats and the use of dangerous weapons.

Advocate for the Petitioner: A.P.P. J.J. Hathaliya

Advocate for the Respondent: S.D. Jakhia

Case Title: Naran Bhai Jadavbhai Postaria vs. Sanjeev RajendbhaiBhatt Criminal Case No. 13129 of 1998