New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has denied bail in a Custodial Death case, but has also directed that there has been a hearing against life imprisonment.
A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta said, “We are not willing to bail Sanjeev Bhatt. The bail prayer is rejected. The appeal hearing will not be affected. The hearing of the appeal has accelerated.”
Mr. Bhatt sought bail and suspension of his sentence.
The case in question is related to a detention death in Jamnagar in Gujarat in 1990, when Mr. Bhatt was an additional Superintendent of Police. He detained more than 130 people after a riot broke.
After the ruling party, after the BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Bharat bandh was called to oppose the arrest of veteran party leader LK Advani. In return, before Mr. Advani, then the BJP chief took out a visit to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
One of the detained persons died in custody.
There were allegations of custodial torture.
A police case was then filed against Mr. Bhatt and others.
A session court convicted Sanjeev Bhatt and sentenced him to life in jail. In January 2024, the Gujarat High Court rejected the appeal against the sentence and the verdict.
He then contacted the Supreme Court, which issued a notice to the Government of Gujarat in 2004 and reserved its decision.
Mr. Bhatt is one accused in two other cases – 1996 drug planting case and 1997 Custodial torture case. He was convicted by a session court in the 1996 case and sentenced to 20 years in jail. His appeal against that is pending before the Gujarat High Court.
He was acquitted in a later case by a magistrate’s court in December 2024.
