SC turns down sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhat’s plea seeking security for family

New Delhi, February 8

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain sacked Gujarat cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhat’s plea seeking security for his family.

A bench of Justices AK Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer asked Bhat to approach the Gujarat High Court with his plea.

On October 4 last year, the apex court had dismissed his wife Shweta Bhat’s plea, challenging the police probe and his judicial custody in a 22-year-old case of alleged planting of drugs to arrest an advocate, and said he could approach an “appropriate forum” for relief.

The apex court had held it was not appropriate for it to interfere in the ongoing investigation.

Bhat was suspended in 2011 on charges of remaining absent from duty without permission and misuse of official vehicles and later sacked in August 2015.

His wife Shweta had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly election as a Congress candidate against Narendra Modi from Maninagar constituency in Ahmedabad in 2012.

Sanjiv Bhatt and seven others, including some former policemen attached with the Banaskantha police, were initially detained for questioning in the case. Bhat was Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996.

According to the police, the Banaskantha police under Bhatt arrested an advocate called Sumersingh Rajpurohit in 1996 on charges of possessing around 1 kg of drugs.

At the time, the Banaskantha police claimed that drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the district’s Palanpur town.

However, a probe by Rajasthan Police concluded that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated by the Banaskantha police to compel him to transfer a disputed property at Pali in Rajasthan.

It also claimed to have found that Rajpurohit was allegedly kidnapped by the Banaskantha police from his residence at Pali.

Following the Rajasthan Police investigation, former inspector of Banaskantha IB Vyas moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter.

The high court later handed over the probe in the case to the CID while hearing the petition and asked it to complete the probe in three months. PTI