Ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt gets 20 years in jail in 1996 drug planting case

A special court in Palanpur on Thursday sentenced ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt to 20 years imprisonment after holding him guilty for framing a lawyer in a narcotics case nearly 28 years ago.

The special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court of J N Thakkar pronounced the judgement awarding 20 years jail term to Bhatt under sections sec 21 (c) and 27A of NDPS act, the maximum punishment prescribed under these sections.

The court found Bhatt guilty of framing Sumer Singh Rajpurohit, a lawyer from Rajasthan, in a narcotics case by planting drugs at a Palanpur hotel room as part of a "well-planned conspiracy" to get a property vacated in Rajasthan's Pali district. 

Bhatt was then posted as Superintendent of Police of Banaskantha district which shares its border with Pali district in Rajasthan. The property belonged to a relative of R R Jain, who was then a sitting judge of Gujarat High Court.

The Gujarat CID (crime) investigated the case and claimed Bhatt as one of the key conspirators, allegedly spent Rs20,000 to buy opium which was planted in a hotel room in Palanpur back in 1996. The CID investigation was undertaken following a Gujarat high court order in 2018.

Bhatt was arrested on September 5, 2018 and since then he has been behind bars. Later, he was also sentenced to life imprisonment in a custodial death case in Jamnagar.

Bhatt didn't get any relief from the court on the ground that the case against him was registered back in 1996 and in 2000, the local police had filed "A" summary report, and the case was closed. The co-accused policemen in this case I B Vyas turned approver against Bhatt.