Former IPS officer and Narendra Modi-baiter, Sanjiv Bhatt had been arrested in early September in connection with a 22-year-old case

The Supreme Court, on Thursday (October 4), dismissed a petition filed by Shweta Bhatt, wife of former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, challenging his arrest by the Gujarat Police in a 22-year-old drug planting case.

The top court’s bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph said that it was not inclined to interfere in the case at this point in time, while pointing out that the facts “are highly contentious”, However, the court said that the petitioner was at liberty to explore other available remedies, including applying for regular bail and seeking relief from an appropriate court.

During the brief proceedings in the case, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the respondents, submitted that Sanjiv Bhatt had been remanded to judicial custody and that the investigation in the case in ongoing for which Bhatt’s further questioning is required.

It may be recalled that Sanjiv Bhatt, a former IPS officer and bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had been detained (later placed under arrest) by the Gujarat Police on September 5 in connection with a case where he is alleged to have planted drugs to arrest a lawyer during his tenure as District Superintendent of Police at Banaskantha, Gujarat.

The lawyer, Sumer Singh Rajpurohit, had filed a case in 1996 against Bhatt and others. Bhatt had reportedly arrested Rajpurohit on charges of possessing around one kilogram of opium – a narcotic drug. At that time, the Banaskanta Police had claimed that the drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in Banaskantha district’s Palanpur town. Rajpurohit had rubbished the charges against him, filing a counter case instead claiming that he never occupied the hotel room and that he was in Pali (Rajasthan) at the time of the purported police raid.

The Rajasthan Police later claimed that its investigation into Rajpurohit’s complaint revealed that the lawyer had been falsely implicated by the Banaskantha Police to compel him to transfer some property. Former police officer IB Vyas had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 for a thorough inquiry into the matter and in June this year, the High Court had handed over the task to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Gujarat Police, with a direction that the probe be completed within three months.

The CID in turn is reported to have questioned Bhatt along with seven others, including Vyas, leading to their arrest on September 5.

— India Legal Bureau