A court in Porbandar, Gujarat, has cleared former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt of charges in a 1997 custodial torture case, stating that the prosecution failed to “prove the case beyond reasonable doubt”.
Bhatt, the former superintendent of police (SP) of Porbandar, was acquitted on Saturday by additional chief judicial magistrate Mukesh Pandya of charges related to causing grievous harm to obtain a confession and other provisions under the Indian Penal Code by granting him the benefit of the doubt because there was insufficient evidence.
Bhatt had already been sentenced to life in prison in a 1990 Jamnagar custodial death case and 20 years in prison in a 1996 case involving drug planting to frame a lawyer from Rajasthan in Palanpur. At the moment, he is being held at the Rajkot Central Jail.
According to the court, the prosecution was unable to “prove the case beyond reasonable doubt” that the complainant was coerced into confessing to the crime and turning himself in by intimidating him and employing dangerous weapons to cause him pain.
It also pointed out that the matter had not been resolved with the sanction needed to bring charges against the accused, who at the time was a public official carrying out his duties.
Sections 330 (causing hurt to extort confession) and 324 (causing hurt with dangerous weapons) of the Indian Penal Code were applied to charge Bhatt and constable Vajubhai Chau, against whom the case was abated after his death, with torturing a man named Naran Jadav both mentally and physically while he was in police custody in order to force a confession in a case under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and the Arms Act.
Bhatt is serving a life sentence in jail in connection with a 1990 custodial death case in Jamnagar. In a 1996 case involving drug planting to frame a lawyer from Rajasthan, the former IPS officer was also given a 20-year prison sentence in March 2024 by a court in Palanpur, Banaskantha district.
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