A court in Porbandar, Gujarat, has acquitted former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a custodial torture case dating back to 1997.
The acquittal was pronounced by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Mukesh Pandya, who observed that the prosecution failed to establish the charges against Bhatt beyond reasonable doubt. "It is ordered that the accused person is hereby acquitted for offences under Sections 326, 330, 34 IPC (Indian Penal Code) for lack of evidence under the provision of Section 248 (1) of CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure). Since the accused is in jail, no orders granting bail till further appeal are being passed," the Court stated in its judgment.
Bhatt had been charged under Section 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), Section 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession, or to compel restoration of property), and Section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The allegations pertained to his tenure as Superintendent of Police (SP) in Gujarat during the relevant period.
The Court found that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the complainant had been coerced into confessing to a crime or forced to surrender under duress or threat involving dangerous weapons. Furthermore, the Court emphasized that requisite sanction to prosecute Bhatt, a public servant acting in his official capacity, had not been obtained.
Bhatt, a former Gujarat-cadre officer, is presently serving life imprisonment following his 2019 conviction in a separate custodial death case from 1990. In that matter, a Jamnagar Sessions Court found him guilty of causing the death of a detainee during the communal riots of 1989. This case was linked to detainees held during the 1989 communal riots. Bhatt is also serving a 20-year sentence under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and IPC for planting drugs, as determined by a Sessions Court in Banaskantha district.
In this 1997 custodial torture case, however, the Porbandar court acquitted Bhatt, citing insufficient evidence to support the charges.
