The Supreme Court has sought an explanation from the Gujarat Government on former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife’s allegation that he was being prevented from executing documents to approach the apex court. Bhatt has been in police custody in connection with a 20-year-old narcotics case. The apex court said the allegations, if true, were of a very serious nature. After his arrest on September 5, the Gujarat High Court sent Bhatt to police custody.
While sending him to the custody of CID (crime), the judge had said that custodial interrogation of the accused was required as there appeared a deep-rooted conspiracy behind the case. The police had told the high court that they needed Bhatt’s custody to find the source of the drugs, which his junior officers allegedly planted to frame a man.
In June, the high court had ordered the CID to investigate the case and file a report in three months. It was alleged that the Banaskantha police planted 1 kg of opium in a hotel room to frame Sumersingh Rajpurohit, a lawyer from Pali in Rajasthan, in 1996.
Bhatt’s lawyer I H Syed had opposed the demand of his custody, saying all the issues were investigated when the case was registered in Rajasthan against Bhatt, and no one could be subjected to investigation twice for the same incident.
Bhatt, who had levelled several allegations against then Narendra Modi-led government in Gujarat with regard to the 2002 riots, was Superintendent of Police in Banaskantha district in 1996. The Banaskantha police arrested Sumersingh Rajpurohit in 1996, claiming that drugs were found in his hotel room. But a probe by the Rajasthan police revealed that he was allegedly falsely implicated to compel him to transfer a disputed property in Pali in someone else’s name.
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