A local sessions court of Gujarat's Jamnagar today awarded life sentence to sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in connection with the 3-decade old custodial death case.
The court held Bhatt guilty and awarded life imprisonment along with then police constable Pravin Zala.
Quoting sources, our correspondent reports that Sanjiv Bhatt in the capacity of ASP of Jamnagar in 1990 ordered the detention of over 100 people in connection with a riot in Jamjodhpur town of Jamnagar district.
After they were released one of them Prabhudas Vishnani had died in hospital. His brother Amritbhai later filed a case alleging that he had died due to custodial torture by eight policemen including Sanjiv Bhatt and then constable Pravin Zala.
Sanjiv Bhatt, a Gujarat cadre IPS was suspended by the state government in 2011 for the long absence from duty and was later sacked for the same in August 2015.
He is currently in judicial custody in connection with a drug planting case. Bhatt had earlier approached the Supreme Court seeking permission for the examination of additional 10 witnesses in the custodial death case but the court refused to entertain his plea.
The Gujarat government had opposed it saying that it was a delay tactic at a time the lower court has completed the final hearing. (AIR NEWS)