Gujarat court acquits ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in 1997 custodial torture case

Bhatt and Vajubhai Chau, then police constable, were facing charges under sections 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to obtain a confession) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The case against Chau was abated in September 2024 after his death pending trial.

The case pertains to 1997, when Bhatt was superintendent of police in Porbandar and the district police had arrested Naran Postariya in the RDX landing case for allegedly waging war against the country under various penal provisions including those of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, or TADA.

The Kamalabaug police arrested Postariya after taking his custody from Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad on July 5, 1997. He alleged that after his arrest, Bhatt and Chau tortured him in custody while giving electric shocks to various parts of his body including his genitals to extract his confession and to make recovery of arms and ammunition.

Postariya complained to the judicial magistrate about the alleged torture on his production before the court on July 6, 1997. Following an inquiry and a court order, a case was registered against Bhatt and Chau on April 15, 2013.

The case was finally adjudicated by the magisterial court and Bhatt was acquitted from the charges while giving him the “benefit of doubt”.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Bhatt’s lawyer Salim Jokhia said, “The complainant was an accused in the RDX landing case and facing charges like waging a war against the country. He alleged that he was given electric shocks, but the medical evidence did not show a single injury mark. So there was no medical corroboration of his allegations. Also, Bhatt was a public servant, but mandatory government sanction was not obtained to prosecute him.”

Bhatt also contended before the court that Postariya was an accused in a serious case and that his complaint of custodial torture was false. “The complaint was given to the court only after (Postariya’s) meeting with his lawyer. It means that it was given after due deliberation with the lawyer,” Jokhia said.

Bhatt, 61, is lodged at Rajkot Central Jail. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case from Jamnagar. He was also handed a 20-year jail term in a 1996 case related to the planting of drugs to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer in Palanpur of Gujarat’s Banaskantha district.