SC declines to suspend former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s 20-year sentence in drug seizure case

New Delhi: Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s bid for freedom was denied on Thursday as the Supreme Court refused to suspend his 20-year prison sentence in a 1996 drug seizure case. A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi declined to entertain Bhatt's appeal, effectively keeping him behind bars.

Bhatt was convicted by a sessions court in Palanpur, Gujarat, for his role in framing a Rajasthan-based lawyer, Sumersingh Rajpurohit, in a fabricated narcotics case nearly three decades ago. At the time of the incident, Bhatt was the Superintendent of Police in Banaskantha district. His police team arrested Rajpurohit, alleging they had discovered drugs in his hotel room.

However, a subsequent investigation by Rajasthan police found that the entire episode was a setup. The probe revealed that Rajpurohit was falsely implicated to pressure him into transferring a disputed property in Pali, Rajasthan. The case was brought back into focus after former police inspector IB Vyas petitioned the Gujarat High Court in 1999, demanding a comprehensive inquiry.

Bhatt, who was dismissed from the police service in 2015, was arrested in connection with this case in September 2018 and has been in Palanpur sub-jail ever since. Thursday’s decision is the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the former officer. Last year, the Supreme Court had dismissed another of his pleas, in which he sought to transfer the trial due to alleged bias from the judge, and imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh on him.

(Inputs from PTI)