Custodial death: Charges filed against IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, six others

Jamnagar: In a major setback to suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, a local court on Thursday filed charges against him and six policemen who are accused in the 1990 Khambalia custodial death case.

The Gujarat High Court had on October 23 rejected the petitions of the accused policemen challenging the Jamnagar sessions court's earlier order of dismissing their discharge applications in the case. The High Court had also directed the lower court to expedite the trial of this 21-year-old case and further directed the sessions court not to interrupt the trial unless there is any order either from the High Court or Supreme Court.

The case concerns the death of one Prabhudas Vaishnani who allegedly succumbed to the injuries inflicted on him while in custody. The police had allegedly thrashed him while he was in custody at the police station on the night of October 30, 1990.

The court framed charges in connection with a case involving alleged police atrocity in 1990, when Sanjiv Bhatt was Jamnagar SP.

The Gujarat government stood by Bhatt till 2011 stating that the death was not custodial death, but reversed its stand after the suspended IPS officer took an anti-Modi government stand on communal riots.

Bhatt, who alleged complicity of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2002 post-Godhra riots, was assistant superintendent of police at the time in Jamnagar. Prabhudas's brother, Amrutlal Vaishnani, had lodged a case against Bhatt and the other policemen.

With Additional Inputs From PTI

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