Ahmedabad, 26 December, 2011

Gujarat High Court today rejected suspended controversial IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s plea seeking a relief in the 1990 murder case in which one person had died.

Bhatt had sought quashing of an order of Jamnagar court refusing to defer framing of charges against him.

Bhatt had also sought a stay on all court proceedings against him, in relation to the two-decade old case as an interim relief.

On December 9, a fast track court of Judge NP Solanki of the Jamkhambhalia taluka in Jamnagar rejected application of Bhatt, seeking deferment on framing of charges against him.

Bhatt has contended that his criminal revision application, filed earlier, was pending before the same court and till it is not heard and disposed off, charges should not be framed against him.

The court rejected Bhatt’s application and scheduled the next hearing on December 27, when the charges are likely to be framed against him and six other accused in the case.

In September, Bhatt had approached the Gujarat High Court, seeking relief in the two-decade-old police atrocity case, by challenging the state government’s decision to withdraw a plea, seeking revision of a Jamkhambhliya court’s order, initiating criminal proceedings against him and six others.

Bhatt’s petition was rejected by Justice RH Shukla of the Gujarat High Court on October 10, which he had challenged in the Supreme Court.

The apex court last month had refused to grant relief to Bhatt in the case and declined to entertain the petition seeking the reversal of a state government order, withdrawing a revision petition in the case.

The 1988-batch IPS officer is presently out on bail after his arrest on September 30 in connection with an FIR filed against him by a police constable for allegedly threatening him, wrongfully confining him and making him sign a false affidavit.