Gujarat court holds ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt guilty in 1996 drug planting case

The prosecution has argued for the maximum punishment of 20 years.

Bhatt has been held guilty under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act sections 21(c), 27A (punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders), 29 (abetment and criminal conspiracy to commit offence under NDPS Act), 58 (1) and (2) (vexatious entry, search, seizure and arrest). He has also been held guilty under Indian Penal Code sections 465 (forgery), 471 (using forged document), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 204 (secrets or destroys any document), 343 (wrongful confinement), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intent).

Bhatt was facing trial in the case where a Rajasthan-based lawyer, Sumer Singh Rajpurohit, was arrested for allegedly keeping 1.15 kg of opium at a Palanpur hotel in 1996. Bhatt was the district superintendent of police at the time and IB Vyas, an inspector with the local crime branch at Palanpur at the time, was a co-accused. Vyas was made an approver in 2021.

The prosecution alleges that Bhatt along with “other co-accused” had hatched a conspiracy to frame Rajpurohit, a resident of Pali in Rajasthan, in a false case of opium possession, punishable under the NDPS Act.

Police admit mistake

An FIR was registered by Vyas at the Palanpur police station against Rajpurohit following the seizure, under section 17 of the NDPS Act. However, a report under CrPC section 169 (release of accused when evidence deficient) was eventually filed by Vyas, admitting that the person occupying the hotel room was not Rajpurohit. Accordingly, Rajpurohit was discharged by the court. The police also filed an ‘A’ summary report in the case.

In October 1996, Rajpurohit submitted a complaint before the magistrate accusing Bhatt, Vyas, other Palanpur police officials, the owner of the hotel from where the opium was seized and former Gujarat High Court judge RR Jain of falsely framing Rajpurohit in the case by planting the drug in the hotel room.

Rajpurohit claimed that he had been framed in the case by Bhatt at the behest of the former judge over a shop at Vardhaman Market in Pali, which was rented to him and another person and was owned by a relative of the judge.

An FIR was registered at the Kotwali police station in Pali against 17 people in November 1996.

Case in cold storage till 2018

The case was in the cold storage for nearly 20 years, until the Gujarat High Court in April 2018 ordered that the Palanpur FIR be investigated by a special investigation team comprising Gujarat CID officials.

Bhatt was arrested in September 2018 in the case. The SIT investigation, headed by Virendrasinh Yadav (now Gandhinagar range DIG), was completed and a chargesheet was filed on November 2, 2018, before an NDPS court in Palanpur against Bhatt and Vyas.