SC dismisses plea filed by wife of former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt

The Supreme Court Thursday dismissed a petition filed by the wife of arrested former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt challenging his arrest in a 22-year-old case of alleged planting of drugs to arrest an advocate.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said the petition can be moved before the Gujarat High Court.

The petition had also alleged that Bhatt was not being allowed to sign any document in custody to enable him approach the apex court.

Bhatt and seven others, including some former policemen attached with the Banaskantha Police, were initially detained for questioning in the case. Bhatt was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996.

As per the police, the Banaskantha Police under Bhatt had arrested one Sumersingh Rajpurohit, an advocate, in 1996 on charges of possessing around one kg of drugs.

At that time, the Banaskantha Police had claimed that drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the district's Palanpur town.

However, a probe by the Rajasthan Police had concluded that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated by the Banaskantha Police to compel him to transfer a disputed property at Pali in Rajasthan. It had also claimed to have found that Rajpurohit was allegedly abducted by the Banaskantha Police from his residence at Pali in Rajasthan.

Following the Rajasthan Police's investigation, former police inspector of Banaskantha I B Vyas had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter.

In June this year, the high court had handed over the probe in the case to the CID while hearing the petition and asked it to complete the probe in three months.

Bhatt, a Gujarat cadre IPS officer, was suspended in 2011 on charges of remaining absent from duty without permission and misuse of official vehicles and later sacked in August, 2015.

Bhatt's wife Shweta has unsuccessfully contested the assembly election as a Congress party candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Maninagar constituency in Ahmedabad in 2012.