SC rejects bail plea of convicted ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in 1990 custodial death case
New Delhi(PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the bail plea of convicted former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1990 custodial death case in which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said there was no merit in his plea for bail or the suspension of sentence in the case.
“We are not inclined to grant Sanjiv Bhatt bail. The prayer of bail is dismissed. The hearing of appeal shall not be affected. The hearing of appeal is expedited," Justice Nath said while pronouncing the verdict.
The appeal of Bhatt against the conviction and life imprisonment is presently pending in the top court.
Bhatt has moved the top court in 2024 challenging the Gujarat High Court's January 9, 2024 order dismissing his appeal.The high court also upheld the conviction of Bhatt and co-accused Pravinsinh Zala under Sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
The high court had dismissed the state government's appeal seeking to enhance the sentences of five other accused who were acquitted of murder charges but convicted under Sections 323 and 506.
On October 30, 1990, then additional superintendent of police Bhatt detained around 150 people following a communal riot in Jamjodhpur town following a 'bandh' call against the halting of BJP leader L K Advani's 'rath yatra' for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Prabhudas Vaishnani, one of the detained persons, died in hospital after his release.
Vaishnani's brother accused Bhatt and six other police officials of torturing him in custody and causing his death.
Bhatt was arrested on September 5, 2018, in another case where he is accused of falsely implicating a man for drug possession. The trial in the case is underway.
He is also an accused in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots cases along with activist Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat director general of police R B Sreekumar.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
