Outlook – July 06, 2019

POLICE STORY

14 OUTLOOK 8 July 2019

by Darshan Desai

in Ahmedabad

I

N Gujarat, coincidences oft­

en get too close. Who would

know this better than the

inca rcerated and sacked IPS

officer Sanjiv Bhatt, award­

ed a life sentence last week in a

case of custodial death dating

way back to 1990. Since 1991,

the state government had ref­

used permission to prosecute

Bhatt and other officers in the

case while investigating off­

icers had filed a report closing

the case. The courts, however,

rejected the police report and a

case was initiated. The govern­

ment filed a revision applica­

tion, continuing to protect the

officers. Come 2011 and Bhatt

deposed against the Modi gov­

ernment before the Justice

Nanavati Commission of Inq­

uiry into the 2002 Godhra

train burning and the subse­

quent communal riots.

“The same evening, the govern­

ment’s protective shield for

Sanjiv was lifted (and the prose­

cution started),” says a tearful

Shweta Bhatt, wife of the jailed

police officer. “Sanjiv did not detain any­

one, did not arrest anyone, did not touch

anyone, it all happened outside his juris­

diction. It was his life’s first posting and

didn’t know anyone there,” she tells

Outlook at their Ahmedabad residence.

Bhatt, 55, incidentally, had been in jail for

several months, unsuccessfully trying to

secure bail in another case before he was

convicted. Shweta says she will challenge

the trial court’s judgment. She also put up

a detailed post on social media as well as

issued a press statement, terming his ar­

rest and sentencing as a “classic case of

political vindictiveness”.

For Shweta, it has been her battle too.

The couple’s differences

with the BJP government

snowballed into a verita­

ble open war when she

contested the 2012 ass­

embly elections on a

Congress ticket against

the then chief minister

Narendra Modi from the

Maninagar constituency.

Nobody expected her to

win but Shweta says her fighting the

election was to “send a message that we

were not scared”. Sanjiv Bhatt was a stri­

dent critic of Modi on microblogging site

Twitter and Facebook till he was arrested

last year over allegations of framing a

lawyer in a narcotics case in 1996.

Special public prosecutor Tushar

Gokani, however, dismisses the allega­

tion. “It was a fair trial, you must see the

exhaustive judgment that runs into more

than 400 pages and covers every small bit.

It is natural for an accused or a convict to

say that the trial was unfair,” he tells

Outlook. “There is no political vendetta.

This incident happened in 1990, there

was no Narendra Modi

then. The accused had 30

years with them and all

liberty and opportunity to

defend themselves.”

According to the facts of

the case, as many as 133

people, including dece­

ased Prabhudas Vai­

shnani, were arrested by

police for communal riot­

ing in Jamjodhpur town of

Jamnagar district on October 30,

1990. It was during a Bharat
      bandh call given by the Sangh
      Pariwar to protest the arrest of
      BJP veteran LK Advani in Bihar
      during his Somnath­to­Ayodhya
      Rath Yatra. The arrests were
      made before the arrival of Sanjiv
      Bhatt, then an additional super­
      intendent of police of Jamnagar.
      Prabhudas Vaishnani died 18
      days after his arrest and eight
      days after his release from judi­
      cial custody, due to what was
      des cribed as “acute renal failure
      as a result of rhabdomyolysis”. In
      layman’s terms, this effect on the
      kidney, among many other
      things, could happen because of
      severe physical exertion or due to
      injury caused by heavy objects.
      This is the basis for the prosecu­
      tion’s argument that Vaishnani
      was tortured in custody.
      Bhatt, however, points to the
      findings of celebrated nephrolo­
      gist and Padmashree awardee
      H.L. Trivedi, who headed the
      government­run Institute of
      Kidney Diseases and Research Centre in
      Ahmedabad at that time. Trivedi’s opin­
      ion was sought by the Criminal Inv­
      estigation Department (Crime) following
      an advice by doctors who performed the
      post­mortem. Trivedi ruled out rhabdo­
      myolysis in Vaishnani. In his defence,
      Bhatt had cited the post­mortem reports
      ruling out any injury and the nephrolo­
      gist’s official report ruling out rhabdomy­
      olysis. Special public prosecutor Gokani
      counters the argument. “Medical officers
      came and deposed at length in the court,
      and were also questioned in detail. They
      were speaking on oath.”
      Bhatt was sacked in 2012 for “unau­
      thorised absence from duty” following
      an ex­parte departmental inquiry. During
      this absence, he was, ironically, deposing
      before the state government­appointed
      Justice Nanavati panel. Last year, con­
      struction on 90 square metres of his bun­
      galow was demolished by the BJP­ruled
      Ahmedabad Municipal Cor poration’s
      bulldozers on charges of unauthorised
      construction. Sanjiv Bhatt’s cup of woes
      can’t be any fuller. O

EMBATTLED Sanjiv Bhatt

before his arrest.

“There’s no

political

vendetta...

Incident took

place in 1990,

there was no

Narendra Modi”

Good Cop

Bad Cop

Gujarat police officer Sanjiv Bhatt

gets lifer for custodial death

PTI