The Gujarat High Court has taken up a plea filed by former Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt, challenging a sessions court order that reversed his discharge and directed the framing of charges in an alleged custodial torture case dating back to 1990.
Sanjiv Bhatt, who was then serving as the Assistant Superintendent of Police in Jamnagar, had detained over a hundred individuals during a bandh, including one Prabhudas Madhavji Vaishnani. The prosecution claims that Vaishnani succumbed to injuries inflicted while in police custody, leading to allegations of custodial abuse against Bhatt and others involved in the operation.
A sessions court in Jamnagar later convicted Bhatt and a constable under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those for murder, causing hurt, and criminal intimidation, and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The Gujarat High Court upheld the conviction in 2024, and the Supreme Court subsequently dismissed Bhatt’s plea for suspension of his sentence in April 2025.
In his latest petition before the High Court,Sanjiv Bhatt has challenged a June 2025 order by the sessions court which overturned an earlier magistrate’s discharge order and directed that charges be framed against him once again. Justice R. T. Vachchani heard the matter on October 15 and adjourned it to December 8, clarifying that the ongoing proceedings would not obstruct the execution of the life sentence already imposed under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita.