Sanjiv Bhatt withdraws from SC his plea seeking suspension of sentence in custodial death case

Sacked Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt Wednesday withdrew his plea in the Supreme Court seeking suspension of his life sentence in a 30-year-old custodial death case.

A bench comprising Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna was told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Bhatt, that Gujarat High Court is hearing his appeal against conviction on a day-to-day basis.

The senior advocate sought permission to withdraw the petition and said the high court be asked to deal with the matter as per law.

The top court then said the appeal in the high court shall be decided in accordance with the law on merits and the matter was dismissed as withdrawn.

The High Court had earlier refused to suspend Bhatt's sentence and observed he had had scant respect for courts and had deliberately tried to misuse the process of law and was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2019 in the case.

The case is related to the custodial death of Prabhudas Vaishnani, who was among 133 people caught by Jamnagar police after a communal riot broke out following a bandh call in view of BJP leader L K Advani's Rath Yatra.

Subsequently, his brother lodged an FIR accusing Bhatt and six other policemen of killing his sibling by torturing him while he was in police detention.

Published on: Wednesday, August 03, 2022, 03:04 PM IST