Jamnagar, 23 October 2012

In a major setback to suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, a local court on Tuesday ordered framing of charges against him and six policemen who are accused in a 21-year-old custodial death case.

Bhatt had moved the sessions court opposing framing of charges against him in connection with the case.

The sessions court will frame charges against all the seven accused on October 30 after the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday rejected the petitions of six accused policemen challenging the Jamnagar sessions court’s earlier order of dismissing their discharge applications in the case.

While rejecting their pleas, Justice M R Shah also directed sessions court to frame charges against the accused within four weeks from on Tuesday.

The High Court also directed the lower court to expeditethe trial of this 21-year-old case and further directed the sessions court not to interrupt the trial unless there is any order either from the High Court or Supreme Court.

The case concerns the death of one Prabhudas Vaishnani who allegedly succumbed to the injuries inflicted on him while in custody. The police had allegedly thrashed him while he was in custody at the police station on the night of October 30, 1990.

Bhatt, who has alleged complicity of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2002 post-Godhra riots, was assistant superintendent of police at the time in Jamnagar.

Prabhudas’s brother, Amrutlal Vaishnani, had lodged a caseagainst Bhatt and the other policemen.