SC rejects Sanjiv Bhatt’s plea to suspend 20-year drug case sentence

The Supreme Court on Thursday (December 11) rejected a plea filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking suspension of the 20-year jail sentence imposed on him in a 1996 drug seizure case.

While hearing his petition, a bench comprised Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi said it was not inclined to entertain the matter.

A sessions court in Palanpur town, Gujarat, had sentenced Bhatt to 20 years in the case dating back to 1996.

False case against lawyer

Bhatt was found guilty of falsely implicating Sumersingh Rajpurohit, a Rajasthan-based lawyer, by claiming that police had seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur where the lawyer was staying. The incident took place in 1996. Bhatt was a superintendent of police in Banaskantha district in 1996, and the district police under him had arrested the lawyer.

Also Read: SC rejects bail plea of convicted ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in 1990 custodial death case

However, the Rajasthan police later said Rajpurohit was falsely implicated by the Banaskantha police to compel him to transfer a disputed property located at Pali in Rajasthan.

Termination and arrest

Former police inspector IB Vyas had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999, demanding a thorough inquiry into the case. Bhatt was sacked from the service in 2015, and he was arrested by the state CID in September 2018 in a drug case under the NDPS Act and has been in Palanpur sub-jail since then.

Also Read: 1996 drug seizure case: Ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt convicted for falsely implicating lawyer

Last year, the former IPS officer approached the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the trial in the 28-year-old drug case to another sessions court, alleging bias. He had also sought directions for recording the trial court proceedings.

However, the Supreme Court had dismissed Bhatt’s plea and imposed a cost of Rs 3 lakh on him for alleging bias against a lower court judge conducting his trial in the case.