A Gujarat court in Porbandar acquitted ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1997 custodial torture case. The court ruled that the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The judgment highlighted that the mandatory sanction for prosecuting Sanjiv Bhatt, who was a public servant at the time, was not obtained.
The case involved allegations that Bhatt, as the superintendent of police, used physical and mental torture to extract a confession from a suspect under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).
Bhatt faced charges under Sections 330 (causing hurt to extort confession) and 324 (causing hurt with dangerous weapons) of the Indian Penal Code. The allegations stemmed from a complaint by Naran Jadav, who claimed he was forced to confess through coercive means.
The court also noted that co-accused constable Vajubhai Chau was no longer part of the trial due to his passing.
Bhatt is already serving life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case from Jamnagar. Additionally, in March 2024, a Palanpur court sentenced him to 20 years in jail for planting drugs in a 1996 case involving a Rajasthan-based lawyer.
The Porbandar court’s decision offers Bhatt some relief, but he remains incarcerated at the Rajkot Central Jail due to his previous convictions.
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