Palanpur: A special NDPS court here has given 20 years imprisonment along with Rs. 2 lakh fine to sacked controversial IPS Sanjiv Bhatt in drugs planting case under NDPS sections 21(c), 27A (punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders).

Sanjiv Bhatt had committing crime of planting drugs in the hotel room of Rajasthan based advocate Sumer Singh Rajpurohit in 1996 when he was the district police chief of Banaskantha. CID Crime had arrested Bhatt and then Police Inspector Vyas in this case in 2018.

Bhatt will face additional one year jail if he fails to pay the fine ordered by the court. He has been convicted for 11 sections including under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act sections 21(c), 27A (punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders), 29 (abetment and criminal conspiracy to commit offence under NDPS Act), 58 (1) and (2) (vexatious entry, search, seizure and arrest). He has also been held guilty under Indian Penal Code sections 465 (forgery), 471 (using forged document), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 204 (secrets or destroys any document), 343 (wrongful confinement), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intent).

Bhatt is also involved in other cases including custodial murder. In 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for custodial murder in Jamnagar in 1990. The Gujarat High Court upheld the conviction in the case, rejecting Bhatt’s appeal against the trial court’s decision. DeshGujarat