New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a plea filed by a former Gujarat cadre Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking examination of “critical witnesses” in the trial pertaining to a custodial death in 1990 when he was Deputy Superintendent of Police in Jamnagar district of Gujarat.
“We regret our inability to entertain the plea”, said the vacation bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Ajay Rastogi recording the statement by Gujarat government that the trial in the case has concluded and order reserved.
While declining to entertain the plea by now-dismissed Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt, the vacation bench, however, permitted him to approach a three-judge bench as the earlier May 24 order directing the completion of trial in custodial death case by June 20 was passed by a three-judge bench.
Dismissed former IPS officer is currently serving his sentence in jail for allegedly framing a Rajasthan-based lawyer, Sumersingh Rajpurohit, in a narcotics peddling case in 1996.
In 1996 Bhatt was serving as District Superintendent of Police in Banaskantha district of Gujarat. Bhatt was dismissed from service in 2015 for “unauthorized absence” from service.
The top court by its May 24, 2019, order had directed the trial court to “positively” conclude the trial by June 20, 2019 and “not to delay the case any more in any manner whatsoever and not to entertain unnecessary applications delaying the decision of the case.”
