The court declined to stay proceedings in the 21-year-old police atrocity case against the IPS officer
The Gujarat high court on Tuesday declined to stay proceedings against IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 21-year-old police atrocity case but issued notices to the state government and Amrutlal Vaishnani, the complainant in the case.
The government has been asked to file its reply to Bhatt’s petition by March 6 when the matter will again be taken up for hearing.
Amrutlal’s brother, Prabhudas, had succumbed to atrocities allegedly committed by Bhatt and six other policemen in 1990 when the IPS officer was assistant superintendent of police (ASP) in Jamnagar. After this, Amrutlal filed a complaint against the IPS officer and the other policemen.
Bhatt had approached the high court for relief after the trial court in Jamjodhpur, Jamnagar, on February 24 rejected his plea seeking condoning of the delay in filing the revision petition. The IPS officer had also prayed that he be not prosecuted in the case.
After primary hearing of the case on Tuesday, Justice AS Dave of the Gujarat high court issued notices to the state government and Amrutlal Vaishnani.
Bhatt’s lawyer, IH Saiyad, said that on February 24, the Jamjodhpur court had rejected their plea for condoning the delay in filing of the revision application.
“The trial court had also observed that our revision plea is not maintainable and, hence, the petition for condoning the delay could not be accepted. We have challenged the order in the high court as the SC has granted us the right to seek all legal remedies in the case,” Saiyad said.
The police officer had found himself in trouble in July last year when the state government withdrew its 16-year-old revision application opposing Bhatt’s prosecution in the case. Later, Bhatt himself had filed a revision petition seeking condoning of the delay of 15 years in filing the application.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the Jamnagar court on Tuesday adjourned the proceedings till March 5 after hearing submissions on the discharge applications of the six other accused policemen in the case.
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