Former IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt Sentenced to 20 Years in 1996 Drug Planting Case

Former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district for his involvement in a 1996 drug planting case. Second additional sessions judge Jatin Thakker, who convicted Bhatt in March, declared the sentence on Thursday. This additional term comes as Bhatt is already serving a twenty-year life imprisonment sentence in a separate case related to custodial death.

The court imposed a fine of Rs. 2 lakh under the NDPS Act Section 21(c). Failure to pay the fine will result in an extended term of one year in jail. Bhatt has also been convicted of charges under Section 27(a) of the NDPS Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including sections 116, 167, and 204.

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The court ruled that Bhatt’s jail terms for different sections of the IPC and NDPS Act would run concurrently. However, the twenty-year jail term for the drug planting case and the twenty-year term for the custodial death case would be served consecutively, totalling forty years in prison.

The drug planting case dates back to 1996 when Bhatt, then the superintendent of police (SP) of Banaskantha in Gujarat, arrested Rajasthan-based lawyer Sumer Singh Rajpurohit for allegedly possessing drugs. However, a further probe revealed that the lawyer was falsely implicated, and Bhatt was accused of fabricating evidence by planting drugs in the lawyer’s room.

Bhatt, along with his subordinate I B Vyas, was arrested in September 2018 after an inquiry ordered by the Gujarat High Court. Bhatt was dismissed from services in 2015. He is currently serving life imprisonment in a case related to custodial death.

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In 2019, Bhatt was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court in Jamnagar for a custodial death case. His appeal against the verdict was rejected by the Gujarat High Court in January this year.

Bhatt, a 1988 batch IPS officer, has been a controversial figure. He was dismissed by the state government in 2015 on various grounds. He had testified against then-chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots, alleging Modi’s involvement in ordering police personnel to allow the Hindu community to retaliate after the Godhra train burning incident.