Ahmedabad, 3 January 2012

There’s another setback for controversial suspended Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt,

The Gujarat High Court has rejected Bhatt’s plea seeking quashing of a complaint in a 1998 Porbandar custodial torture case and directed the Porbander district court to proceed with the criminal trial against him and conclude the same within 12 months. Sanjiv Bhatt was Superitendent of Police (SP) of Porbandar district in 1998. Justice M R Shah vacated the stay, granted by it in December 2010, on conducting criminal proceedings against Bhatt in the case. The court also directed all those concerned with the case to cooperate with the trial court for early disposal of the case.

Bhatt, along with constable Vajubhai Chau, is charged for the offence punishable under sections 330 (causing hurt to extort confession), 324 (causing hurt with dangerous weapon) read with section 34 (action done by several persons with common intent) of the Indian Penal Code on the complaint against them by one Naran Jadav in 1998 for causing him physical and mental torture in police custody for extracting confession in a TADA and Arms Act case.

“This court is of the opinion that this is not a fit case to exercise the powers under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to quash and set aside the impugned complaint and/or order passed by the learned magistrate directing to issue process against the applicant (Bhatt),” the HC stated in its order.

In Porbandar case, Sanjiv Bhatt is accused of giving electric shock to father-son duo on penis