Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt moves SC to suspend 20-year sentence in 1996 drug planting case

Former Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt has moved the Supreme Court seeking suspension of the 20-year jail sentence handed to him in the 1996 drug planting case, Live Law reported on Wednesday.

Bhatt is already serving a life sentence in a separate 1990 custodial death case.

The plea came up on Wednesday before a bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi but was adjourned at the request of advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Bhatt.

Bhatt was arrested in 2018 in a case based on a complaint by a Rajasthan-based lawyer, Sumer Singh Rajpurohit, who accused the ex-IPS officer and others of planting 1.15 kg of opium at a Palanpur hotel in Gujarat's Banaskantha district, where he was staying in 1996.

At the time of the alleged incident, Bhatt was serving as the district superintendent of police in Banaskantha. Another officer, Inspector IB Vyas, was also named in the case. Vyas turned approver in the case in 2021.

According to the prosecution, Bhatt and his co-accused conspired to frame the lawyer under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

In March 2024, a sessions court in Palanpur sentenced him to 20 years in prison under provisions of the Act.

He was also convicted under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including forgery, using forged documents, wrongful confinement, criminal conspiracy and framing incorrect documents with intent to cause injury.

Following this, Bhatt approached the Gujarat High Court for suspension of sentence and bail in the case.

The High Court had rejected his plea, noting the “seriousness and gravity” of the offence, the stringent requirements under Section 37 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the presumption of innocence being reversed after conviction, among others, Live Law reported.

Section 37 of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act deals with cognisable and non-bailable offences.

Source: Scroll
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