On 5 September, the disgraced IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested over a drug planting case of 1998. The disgraced IPS officer was detained as per the directives from the Gujarat High Court. Two ex-cops along with four other people have also been taken into custody.
Dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has been detained by CID (Crime) of Gujarat in connection with Palanpur drug planting case of 1998. Probe underway after HC orders. Interrogation of Sanjiv Bhatt & seven others underway. 2 more former police officers also involved.
— ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2018
The Palanpur Drug planting case took place in 1998 when dismissed IPS officer and now an abusive twitter troll, Sanjiv Bhatt, was serving as the DCP of Banaskantha. He was then accused of trying to frame a lawyer from Rajasthan, Sumshersinh Rajpurohit, in a fake narcotics case. The lawyer was arrested by Banaskantha police in May 1996 from his native place in Pali, Rajasthan, after the recovery of 1.5 kg opium from a local hotel. He was later released by the police.
Later on, Rajpurohit filed a case in Rajasthan alleging that plain clothed policemen abducted him at the directions of the then Gujarat High Court Judge R.R Jain. It was further alleged that this was done in order to vacate the property occupied by Rajpurohit, which belonged to one of the family members of Justice Jain.
The Rajasthan court accepted his claims and found fault in the actions taken by Banaskantha police. Rajasthan Police maintained that Rajpurohit was kidnapped from his home and was booked by Gujarat Police in a fake narcotics case.
In June this year, Justice J.B Pardiwala of Gujarat High Court ordered an investigation by SIT of CID-crime. Now, according to a ‘Indian Express’ report, the CID-Crime in its 550 page chargesheet has stated that Sanjiv Bhatt gave Rs 20,000 to a policeman to buy opium from Sherpura in Deesa tehsil of Banaskantha district to ascertain his information. Rabari followed the instructions of Sanjiv Bhatt and bought the opium on April 29, 1996. Opium was kept in the cupboard of Local Crime Branch police (LCB) Inspector Indravadan Vyas. The chargesheet further says that a day later, the same bag was placed in room number 305 of Lajwanti city hotel in Palanpur where a “fake” raid was carried out under the supervision of Vyas, who was leading the LCB, and based on which Rajput was taken into custody.
The chargesheet further stated, on May 1, 1996, the LCB team raided Sherapura and registered four cases under the Narcotics Act and “recovered 35.620 gram of opium”; bags containing 1 Kg to 2Kg of opium were recovered by the police. According to the chargesheet, the opium planted at the Lajwanti hotel and the ones seized in the police raid were of same category.
The chargesheet stated, “On 2/5/96 midnight, accused Indravadan Vyas went to the house of Sumer Singh Rajpurohit and arrested him despite not having enough evidence… “On 3/5/96 despite not having enough evidence to arrest Rajpurohit, as part of criminal conspiracy hatched by main accused Sanjiv Bhatt, at 12:30 AM. And, accused Sanjiv Bhatt called Rajput in his own chamber and threatened him to vacate the shop number-6 or else the other 4 kg of opium will be shown as recovered from him.”
There are over 30 witnesses in the case, including policemen who have recorded their statement in the case against Bhatt, Vyas and Malabhai Rabari’s role.
Sanjiv Bhatt was dismissed from the service in 2015 on the charges of “Staying absent from duty, defying orders of superior officer (DG & IGP), taking custody of log book from lawfully authorized government servants, retaining official vehicle belonging to other officers, retaining custody of government assets unauthorizedly, misbehaving with government servants”.
