Banaskantha: A local court in here in Palanpur has imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the sacked controversial IPS officer, Sanjiv Bhatt, for submitting a repetitive application that concealed facts from the court. This comes just a week after the Supreme Court fined him Rs 3 lakh for submitting applications related to the 1996 alleged drug planting case.

Bhatt’s application had requested the court to revoke the pardon granted to his co-accused, former DySP I B Vyas, who had turned into an approver in the NDPS case against Bhatt. He also sought legal action against Vyas under Section 308 of the CrPC.

The additional sessions judge, J N Thakkar, imposed this fine on Bhatt on Wednesday and instructed him to deposit the amount with the district legal service authority within two weeks. The court criticized Bhatt for manipulating his applications to cause delays in the legal proceedings, taking note of his habit of concealing essential facts.

On September 1, Bhatt had filed a similar application in which he claimed that Vyas had not provided accurate and complete information and had concocted certain details. The court dismissed this application, providing reasons for its decision. Later, Bhatt submitted a revision application with the Gujarat High Court, but he withdrew it on October 5. Notably, he failed to disclose the withdrawal of the revision application in his second application to the trial court. The prosecution pointed out this omission and called for an exemplary order to put an end to Bhatt’s practice of filing applications to obstruct the trial, which is currently in the final arguments stage.

The trial court emphasized the importance of including these details in its order so that higher courts are informed about Bhatt’s attempts to delay the trial. The court also noted that the Supreme Court had previously fined Bhatt for submitting groundless and frivolous applications. DeshGujarat