Supreme Court Reserves Order On Sanjiv Bhatt's Plea To Suspend Sentence In 1990 Custodial Torture Case

The Supreme Court on Friday (February 28) reserved order on the application filed by expelled Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking to suspend the life sentence imposed on him in a custodial death case of 1990.

A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta heard the application moved in the Special Leave Petition filed by Bhatt challenging the January 2024 judgment of the Gujarat High Court which dismissed his appeal against the conviction and sentence.  

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, for Sanjiv Bhatt, submitted that he has been under custody for over five years. Sibal argued that there was no evidence to convict Bhatt and that the medical evidence suggested that the victim, Prabhudas Madhavji Vaishnani, died due to pre-existing medical conditions. He claimed that there was no medical evidence of any physical torture. He highlighted that the death happened about twenty days after the release of the victim from custody. Although the victim had immediately met the family doctor after release, he did not make any complaint of police torture, Sibal stated. "If this kind of trials takes place, where will the country go? All I am asking for is bail," Sibal said.

Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, for the State of Gujarat, refuted the petitioner's arguments, and stated that the medical evidence showed that the victim died due to renal failure, which was caused by the forceful sit-ups and crawling which he was made to do by the police throughout the night. There was clear evidence that torture led to kidney problems. Singh also pointed out that Bhatt is serving a 20-year sentence in another case, relating to planting of drugs to implicate a person. There are no justifiable circumstances to suspend the sentence, Singh argued, considering the cogent evidence on record and also the other criminal antecedents of the convict.

The bench was also told that the Supreme Court had earlier dismissed Bhatt's petitions to suspend the sentence while his appeal was pending in the Gujarat High Court. Advocate Vanshaja Shukla, for the informant(brother of the deceased), highlighted that it was a case where justice was delivered nearly thirty years after the incident and that the Courts must be mindful of the rights of the victims as well.

The incident relates to the death of one Prabhudas Madhavji Vaishnani in November 1990, which was allegedly due to custodial torture. At the time, Bhatt was the Assistant Superintendent of Police Jamnagar, who, along with other officers, took into custody about 133 persons, including Vaishnani, for rioting during a Bharat Bandh.

Vaishnani, who was kept in custody for nine days, died ten days after release on bail. As per medical records, the cause of death was renal failure.

Following his death, an FIR was registered against Bhatt and a few other officers over the allegations of custodial torture. Cognizance of the case was taken by the Magistrate in 1995. However, the trial remained stayed till 2011 due to a stay by the Gujarat High Court. Later the stay was vacated and trial commenced.

In June 2019, a Sessions Court in the State's Jamnagar district sentenced Bhatt and a police constable (Pravinsinh Zala) to life imprisonment in the case after convicting them under sections 302 (murder), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (1) (punishment for offence of criminal intimidation) of IPC.

Apart from them, police constables Pravinsinh Jadeja, Anopsinh Jethva and Kesubha Dolubha Jadeja and police sub-inspectors Shailesh Pandya and Dipakkumar Bhagwandas Shah were also found guilty of custodial torture and were convicted under Sections 323 and 506 (1) of IPC.

Challenging their conviction, Zala, Bhatt, Shah and Pandya moved the HC in 2019.

Dismissing their criminal appeal, a bench of Justice Ashutosh Shastri and Justice Sandeep N. Bhatt observed that the reasoning given by the Jamnagar Court was correct and hence, there was no reason to interfere with the order of conviction.

Sanjiv Bhatt's petition was filed through Rajesh Inamdar AoR.

Case : SANJIV KUMAR RAJENDRABHAI BHATT v THE STATE OF GUJARAT AND ANR.| SLP(Crl) No. 11736/2024