Hardik Patel, 2 Congress MLAs detained on way to meet sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt
Palanpur, Aug 14: Congress leader Hardik Patel, two party MLAs and around 27 of their supporters were on Wednesday detained while they were on way to Palanpur district jail in Gujarat to meet sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, police said.
Bhatt, who was in June awarded life sentence in a custodial death case, is currently lodged at the Palanpur district jail.
Hardik Patel, the Patidar quota agitation spearhead who joined the Congress earlier this year ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, was detained as soon as he and other party leaders entered Palanpur to go to the jail to meet Bhatt, Banaskantha's Superintendent of Police Niraj Badgujar said.
"We were expecting law and order issues at the jail in Palanpur, so we detained around 30 people, including Hardik Patel, Congress MLAs from Palanpur and Patan and their supporters, when they entered Palanpur to go to the sub-jail to meet Bhatt," he said.
The two MLAs who have been detained are Mahesh Patel of Palanpur and Kirit Patel of Patan.
The sacked IPS officer's wife Shweta Bhatt on Tuesday announced she will accompany her husband's supporters (most of them women), who wanted to tie 'rakhi' to him, to Palanpur jail, the police official said.
"Hardik Patel said he will also accompany her. While Sanjiv Bhatt's wife has been allowed to go to meet him as she is a family member, we have detained the others," he informed.
Sanjiv Bhatt was in June this year awarded life sentence in a custodial death case dating back to 1990 when he was posted as an additional superintendent of police in Jamnagar district.
On September 5, 2018, he was arrested in another case, where he is accused of falsely implicating a man for alleged possession of drugs in Palanpur in 1996. The trial in the case continues.
Some people recently launched a social media campaign in his support and sought rakhis, which they said will be handed over to him.
The Gujarat-cadre officer was suspended from the Indian Police Service in 2011 and sacked by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in August 2015 on grounds of "unauthorized absence from service".
In 2012, his wife unsuccessfully contested the state Assembly poll on Congress' ticket against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Maninagar constituency in Ahmedabad.
Sanjiv Bhatt made headlines when he alleged in an affidavit before the Supreme Court that after the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002, Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat, at a meeting asked senior police officers to let the majority community vent its anger.
The Special Investigation Team appointed by the apex court to investigate the 2002 riots concluded that Bhatt, being a very junior officer then, was not present at the meeting.
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Man chased, brutally stabbed inside public toilet in northwest Delhi; one arrested; juvenile held
New Delhi (PTI): An alleged road rage incident took a fatal turn when a 27-year-old factory worker was chased down by assailants and stabbed multiple times inside a public toilet in northwest Delhi's Ashok Vihar area, police said on Thursday.
According to police, the incident took place on Wednesday night, when witnesses saw the victim, Santosh Kumar, running into a public toilet in a desperate bid to save his life, with his attackers hot on his heels.
"A PCR call was received at 6:23 pm on April 8 regarding a man being stabbed inside the compound of a Sulabh Sauchalaya located at the fish market in Wazirpur Industrial Area," a senior police officer said.
A police team rushed to the spot and found the victim lying in a pool of blood inside the toilet premises. The victim, originally from Nepal, was residing in Macchi Market area, the official said.
Preliminary inquiry revealed that the incident stemmed from an altercation between the victim and a motorcycle rider. The verbal spat soon escalated into a physical scuffle, during which the accused, along with an associate, allegedly attacked Santosh with a knife.
Police sources said in a desperate attempt to save himself, the injured victim ran towards the nearby public toilet and tried to latch the door from inside. Eyewitness accounts suggest he tried to take refuge inside the public toilet and shut the door to prevent his attackers from entering. However, he was chased down, overpowered, and stabbed multiple times.
Santosh collapsed on the spot, where he later succumbed to his injuries, police said.
A case under sections 103(1) (murder) and 3(5) (common intentions) was registered at Ashok Vihar police station and an investigation was taken up.
During the probe, police arrested one accused identified as Tanish (19), a resident of CSA Colony in Macchi Market area, and apprehended a juvenile allegedly involved in the incident.
Police said the motorcycle used by the accused, which they had abandoned while fleeing after the attack, was recovered near the crime scene.
Family members and acquaintances of the deceased expressed shock over the killing. Santosh's uncle, who reached the spot after being informed, recounted the scene.
"When I came here, I saw him lying on the floor, dead. I noticed that he had been stabbed twice. I am not aware of what exactly happened. He was just 27 years old and used to work in a steel company with me. I don't know how many people were involved in the attack. We are from Nepal, and I have been working here for 15 years. I think he was stabbed outside and later came inside the toilet to save himself. There was a bike outside which I think belonged to the attackers," he said.
Police said the motive behind the crime appears to be road rage -- a sudden and heated altercation on the road that spiralled into a violent assault resulting in the victim's death.
Efforts are underway to identify and apprehend any other persons involved in the attack. Police teams are analysing CCTV footage from the surrounding area and examining local witnesses to piece together the sequence of events.
