The Gujarat High Court has said it would not quash First Information Report (FIR) lodged against Sanjiv Bhatt, the former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in the 27-year-old drug planting case.
Single-judge Justice Samir Dave rejected the application filed by Bhatt to quash the FIR lodged against him.
The judge also refused to stay the effect of the instant order or stay the trial proceedings for a month, despite a request by Bhatt’s counsel.
The judge orally asked how can the trial be stay when there was never a stay? Sorry, no stay,”
The case arose from the arrest of a Rajasthan-based lawyer in 1996 by the Basankantha Police after drug was seized from the advocate’s hotel room in Palanpur, Rajasthan.
Bhatt was the Superintendent of Police at Basankantha during the relevant time.
However, later the Rajasthan Police claimed that Bhatt’s team had lodged a false case and that the same was done only to harass the lawyer with regard to a property dispute.
Bhatt was arrested in the case in September 2018 and has remained in jail since then.
In February, this year, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea filed by him challenging a January 2023 Gujarat High Court order which extended the time to complete the trial till March 31, 2023.
The Supreme Court had termed the plea to be ‘frivolous’ and imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on Bhatt.
Bhatt is known for being a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi-led government.
Prior to his dismissal from service, he had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court alleging that the Modi-led Gujarat government had a complicit role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
He was dismissed from service by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in 2015 on grounds of unauthorised absence from service.