Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt arrested in 1998 drug planting case. All details here

Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has been arrested by the CID crime branch in connection with the Palanpur drug plant case in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He was arrested after he was brought in for interrogation by the CID, following directives from the Gujarat High Court.

The Palanpur case dates back to 1998, wherein the police had arrested a lawyer who was allegedly in possession of 1.5 kg of narcotics. Now, Bhatt has been accused of falsely framing the lawyer, while the other sx police officers have been detained as of now.

Bhatt was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996. He was dismissed from the service in 2015.

As per the case details, the Banaskantha Police under Bhatt had arrested one Sumersingh Rajpurohit, an advocate, in 1996 on charges of possessing around one kg of drugs.

At that time, the Banaskantha Police had claimed that drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the district's Palanpur town.

However, a probe by the Rajasthan Police had revealed that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated by the Banaskantha Police to compel him to transfer a disputed property at Pali in Rajasthan.

It had also found that Rajpurohit was allegedly abducted by the Banaskantha Police from his residence at Pali in Rajasthan.

Meanwhile, the Congress party has come out in support of controversial former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt. Backing Bhatt, Congress leader Manish Tewari called it a ‘kangaroo justice BJP style’.

“For an alleged case dating back to 1998 @sanjivbhatt detained/ arrested in 2018. Kangaroo justice BJP style. Looks to be a desperate act of vendetta to settle old scores now with less than 6 months of the Government’s tenure left,” wrote Tewari on Twitter.

WHO IS SANJIV BHATT?

Sanjiv Bhatt is a former Indian Police Service officer from Gujarat, who is known to be quite vocal on social media, voicing out his opinions on almost every issue. Incidentally, his last tweet on Twitter happens to be posted 13 hours ago, wherein he took a swipe at the BJP over the Kolkata bridge collapse.

Bhatt grabbed limelight in 2011, when he filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court of India against the Gujarat government in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots. In the same year, he accused the SIT of hiding the truth behind the riots, and also filed a PIL in the Supreme Court demanding an independent agency to investigate the riots. However, in 2015, a Supreme Court bench hearing the plea rebuked Bhatt, calling his allegations against SIT.

SUSPENSION FROM DUTY

Sanjiv Bhatt got suspended on August 8, 2011 by the Gujarat government, which accused him of unauthorised absence from duty. The Gujarat government also accused him of using his official car while not on duty.

Later in August 2015, Bhatt was removed from the IPS on the grounds of "unauthorised absence".