The former IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s petition seeking to produce additional evidence in the criminal appeal pending in the Gujarat high court against his conviction in a custodial death was dismissed by the supreme court. Special leave petitions were charged by Bhatt challenging the order passed by the High court on 24th August 2022. The bench consisting of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said that there was no reason to interfere with the high court order.
The custodial death happened in the year 1990.Bhatt was appointed as the additional superident of police at Jamna Nagar. The BJP workers were protesting against the arrest of L. K. Advani after his Rath Yathra stopped due to the communal violence in Bihar. The police detained many workers and one of them Prabhudas Vaishnani died in the hospital after his release. His brother alleged that his death was due to the toture by policemen in the jail. It was on June 20, 2019, Bhatt was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the sessions court in Jamna Nagar. He had filed an application to produce one expert evidence one doctor to support his argument that th death was not due to the sit ups that the deceased was forcibly made to do by the police. He approached the Gujarat high court for the suspension of his sentence, but it was rejected in September 2019. The court accused him of misusing the process of law.
On August 24 2022 his application filed under section 391 of CRPC seeking for additional expert evidence was rejected by the Gujarat High court. Senior advocate appearing for Bhatt Devadatt Kamat argued that the real controversy in this case was whether the death was caused by rhabdomyolysis and the expert evidence of the doctor sought to be relied on. The postmortem report did not show any injury. Considering the doctor’s opinion was relevant and the trail court only allowed four hours of time to present it before the court. The expert witness was at Hyderabad, and it was not possible to bring him to the Gujarat high court within 4 hours.
Senior advocates, Maninder Singh and Atmaram Nadkarni appearing for the state opposed the petition.
written by- Krishnapriya intern under legal vidhiya
REFERENCE
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/1990-custodial-death-case-supreme-court-raps-sanjiv-bhat-over-request-for-recusal-of-judge-101672770569057.html
https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/supreme-court-sanjiv-bhatts-adduce-expert-evidence-appeal-conviction-custodial-death-case-228371
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