PALANPUR: A magisterial court in Palanpur,rejected remand application of Gujarat CID (Crime) of former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt and a retired police inspector I B Vyas for 14 days and sent the two to Palanpur sub-jail, with a 22-year-old case of alleged planting of drugs to arrest a man.
The CID in its plea while producing both of them before Additional Judicial Magistrate V R Charan, sought for their custody extending up to 14 days. Gujarat government had appointed public prosecutor at HC, Mitesh Amin, for presenting its case.
Arguing against the grant of custody, defence lawyers pointed out that it was a 22-year-old case, and a petition related to the matter was pending before the Supreme Court.
After hearing the arguments, the magistrate rejected the CID’s demand, and sent both the accused in judicial custody at Palanpur sub-jail.
The case, with long history and multiple litigation, relates to the arrest of a Rajasthan lawyer Sumersingh Rajpurohit, who was booked by Banaskantha police under the provisions of NDPS Act on April 30, 1996. On recovering allegedly around one kg of opium in 1996, the CID arrested Sumersingh Rajpurohit over the charges of keeping drugs with him.
Sanjiv Bhatt held the post of superintendent of police for Banaskantha district in 1996.
Sanjiv Bhatt always proved to be critical and the human rights advocate over the 2002 Gujarat riots and criticized the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi.
