Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt sentenced to life in 30-year old custodial death case

Jamnagar Sessions Court today sentenced former Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt to life imprisonment in 1990 custodial death case.

Few weeks ago, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain his plea seeking examination of 11 additional witnesses in a 30-year-old custodial death case in which he is facing the trial.

Bhatt had moved the apex court saying that examination of these 11 witnesses was crucial for arriving at a just and fair decision in the case.


Bhatt was accused in the 1989 custodial death case during his tenure. He was posted as the additional superintendent of police in Gujarat's Jamnagar at the time of the incident.

According to the prosecution, Bhatt had detained more than hundred persons during a communal riot there and one of the detainees had died in hospital after he was released.

He was suspended in 2011 on charges of remaining absent from duty without permission and misuse of official vehicles, and later sacked in August 2015.

(Inputs from PTI)