Sessions court in Khambhaliya taluka of the district has issued a bailable warrant against suspended the IPS officer in a case dating back to 1990, where a person had died, allegedly, due to beating-up by the police.
Sessions court in Khambhaliya taluka of the district has issued a bailable warrant against suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a case dating back to 1990, where a person had died, allegedly, due to beating-up by the police.
The warrant was issued by Additional Session Judge NT Solanki yesterday, after Bhatt, an accused, failed to appear.
Bhatt has taken on the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi by accusing him of misusing the state machinery during 2002 post-Godhra riots. The senior IPS officer was recently suspended.
Last month, the state had withdrawn the petition seeking revision of the lower court's order initiating criminal proceedings against Bhatt and six others for allegedly beating up people in Jamkhambhalia taluka in 1990, when communal clashes had broken out in the area.
The petition, filed in 1996, was withdrawn by public prosecutor Vimal Chotia last month. This paved the way for framing of charges against Bhatt and others.
According to Chotia, the petition had to be withdrawn, as the state cannot be a complainant on one hand, and defend the accused on the other.
In every criminal case, state is the prosecutor, and hence it cannot defend its own officers, Chotia had argued.
In 1996, Gujarat High Court had dismissed the petition of the accused in the case, seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings.
Then the government had filed a revision petition against lower court's order.
It had remained pending before HC all these years.
The alleged crime took place in 1990 when Bhatt was posted as DySP in Jamnagar, and was in-charge of police bandobast in Jamkhambhliya area where communal clashes had broken out.
Allegedly, on his orders, police had beaten up some people, causing the death of a man and injuring several others.
Bhatt was suspended by the Gujarat government early this month for misconduct, unauthorised absence from duty, misuse of official vehicle and not appearing before departmental inquiry panel.
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