NEW DELHI: A Gujarat court in Porbandar has acquitted former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1997 custodial torture case, stating that the prosecution was unable to “prove the case beyond reasonable doubt”.
Additional chief judicial magistrate Mukesh Pandya, while delivering the verdict on Saturday, granted Bhatt the benefit of the doubt due to insufficient evidence.
The case was filed against Bhatt, who was serving as the Superintendent of Police (SP) in Porbandar at the time, under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to causing grievous hurt to obtain a confession.
Charges were also filed against constable Vajubhai Chau but the case against him was abated following his death.
The court noted that the prosecution could not establish that the complainant, Naran Jadav, was tortured to force a confession.
It also highlighted that the necessary sanction to prosecute Bhatt, a public servant discharging his duties at the time, had not been obtained.
The case stemmed from an FIR registered on April 15, 2013, as per the court’s directive following Jadav’s complaint in 1997.
Jadav, one of the accused in the 1994 arms landing case, claimed he and his son were subjected to electric shocks on various parts of their bodies, including private areas, while in police custody. He alleged that on 5 July 1997, he was transferred from Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad to Bhatt’s residence in Porbandar, where the torture occurred.
His complaint to a judicial magistrate led to a probe, following which a case was registered on 31 December 1998 and summons were issued to Bhatt and Chau.
This acquittal is the latest legal development for Bhatt, who is currently serving life imprisonment in the 1990 custodial death case of Prabhudas Vaishnani, one of 150 people detained in Jamjodhpur during a riot following a bandh linked to BJP leader L K Advani’s halted Rath Yatra.
Bhatt was also convicted in a 1996 case of planting drugs to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in March 2024.
The former IPS officer is also facing charges of fabricating evidence in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots, alongside activist Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar.
Bhatt, who was dismissed from police service in 2015 for “unauthorised absence”, had challenged his conviction in the 1990 case before the Gujarat high court but his appeal was dismissed in January 2024.
Bhatt made headlines in 2011 after filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court, alleging that then-Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was complicit in the 2002 riots. However, these claims were rejected by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) assigned to probe the matter.
With this acquittal, Bhatt has managed to shake off one of several legal battles, but he remains behind bars at Rajkot Central Jail, where he is serving sentences for his previous convictions.
(With inputs from agencies)