New Delhi, Dec 11 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to suspend the 20-year sentence awarded to former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1996 drug planting case.
A bench comprising Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Vijay Bishnoi declined to entertain Bhatt’s plea, thereby upholding the conviction imposed by a Gujarat court last year under the NDPS Act and various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Bhatt, argued that the former officer had already undergone more than seven years in prison and was convicted for a non-commercial quantity of narcotics.
Opposing the plea, senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing the State, asserted that the case involved a clear conspiracy, adding, “There was a conspiracy, planted opium and recovery exceeded 1 kg.”
After hearing both sides, the Supreme Court dismissed the request for suspension of sentence.
The case dates back to 1996, when Rajasthan-based lawyer Sumer Singh Rajpurohit was arrested by the Banaskantha police following the alleged recovery of opium from a hotel room in Palanpur.
Bhatt was then serving as the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Palanpur. Rajpurohit, later discharged, accused Bhatt and other officers of planting the contraband to falsely implicate him over a property dispute.
Bhatt was arrested in 2018 in connection with the case. He is also serving a life sentence in another matter related to the 1990 custodial death of Prabhudas Vaishnani, which occurred when Bhatt was the Assistant Superintendent of Police in Jamnagar.
The Supreme Court similarly rejected his plea for suspension of sentence in that custodial death case in April.
Bhatt, known for his criticism of the Narendra Modi-led government, was dismissed from the IPS in 2015 for alleged unauthorised absence.
Earlier, he had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court claiming that the Gujarat government played a complicit role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
SC declines to suspend 20-year sentence of ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in NDPS case
