A Gujarat court on Thursday sentenced sacked Gujarat-cadre IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt to life imprisonment in connection with a 30-year-old custodial death case.

On June 12, the apex court had declined to hear Bhatt’s plea seeking fresh examination of witnesses in the case after the Gujarat government had informed it that the trial court has already reserved judgement in the case for June 20.

Bhatt had moved the Supreme Court challenging a Gujarat HC order which refused his appeal to summon certain additional witnesses for examination during the trial in the case.

The case dates back to 1989 when Bhatt was serving as Additional Superintendent of Police in Gujarat’s Jamnagar. Bhatt had detained more than a hundred people in connection with a communal riot and one of the detainees died.

Bhatt was sacked in 2015 and prior to that in 2011 he was suspended for not reporting to duty and also misusing official vehicles.

—India Legal Bureau