A Porbandar court has acquitted ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1997 custodial torture case, on the grounds that the prosecution did not &ldquo;prove the case beyond reasonable doubt,&rdquo; legal news website livelaw.com reported.
Bhatt is currently housed in the Rajkot Central Jail, where he is serving out a life sentence in a 1990 custodial death case in Jamnagar. He was also sentenced in March to 20 years&rsquo; imprisonment in a case relating to planting drugs to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer in Palanpur in 1996.
On Saturday, additional chief judicial magistrate Mukesh Pandya acquitted Bhatt in a case filed against him, when he was the Porbandar superintendent of police (SP).
Bhatt and constable Vajubhai Chau, who died during the trial, were charged under sections 330 (causing hurt to extort confession) and 324 (causing hurt with dangerous weapons) of the Indian Penal Code.
The court gave Bhatt the benefit of the doubt citing a lack of evidence that the then SP used threats and dangerous weapons voluntarily to force the complainant, one Naran Jadav, to confess and surrender in a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and Arms Act case.
It also noted that the sanction required to prosecute the accused, who was then a public servant discharging his duty, had not been obtained in the case, NDTV reported.

Court cites insufficient proof in custodial torture case filed when he was Porbandar SP

Sanjiv Bhatt Acquitted in 1997 Custodial Torture Case

Court cites insufficient proof in custodial torture case filed when he was Porbandar SP

December 8, 2024 | 13:37 IST