The Supreme Courtroom on Thursday (December 11) refused to droop the 20-year jail sentence imposed on ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt within the 1996 drug planting case.
The case was listed at present earlier than a bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal (for Bhatt) on the outset submitted that he has undergone 7 years and three months of sentence. The bench mentioned that Bhatt can search an early listening to of the matter.
“Why? I’ve already undergone greater than half the sentence,” Sibal submitted. Justice Maheshwari then identified that the amount of medication concerned was fairly excessive – 5KG. Refuting this, Sibal mentioned that this prosecution allegation has not been proved, and the conviction was for the possession of 1.015 KG of opium. Because it was not industrial amount, Part 21(c) of the Narcotic Medication and Psychotropic Substances Act won’t apply, he argued.
Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, for the State, opposed the plea, saying that the info are “gross.” “He was DSP in a specific district. He will get in a conspiracy that he’ll finance the procurement of opium, put it in a visitor home…he offers his constable cash to get opium…ultimate restoration was 1.015 however I’ll present 4 different kgs…industrial amount for opium by-product is 250 gms. Seized amount is over 1 kg! That is why 20 years.”
The bench, observing that it was not inclined to entertain the matter, dismissed the appliance. “Meaning I will likely be inside now for 3 extra years,” Sibal mentioned after the order was dictated.
Initially, Bhatt approached the Gujarat Excessive Courtroom for suspension of sentence and grant of bail. However his plea was rejected. “having regard to the seriousness and gravity of the offence, the trials of Part 37 of the NDPS Act, presumption of innocence being reversed put up conviction, societal influence, antecedents and place of the applicant on the time of incident, we’re not inclined to think about the prayer searching for suspension of sentence and grant of bail”, the Excessive Courtroom mentioned.
Bhatt was arrested in September 2018 below a course of the Gujarat Excessive Courtroom to the CID to probe the case through which a Rajasthan-based lawyer (Sumer Singh Rajpurohit) was alleged to have been framed by the Banaskantha police on the allegations of retaining 1.5 kg of opium at a Palanpur resort in 1996. Throughout that interval, Bhatt served because the district superintendent of police, whereas IB Vyas, an inspector with the native crime department in Palanpur, was additionally implicated as a co-accused within the case.
In 2021, Vyas grew to become an approver within the case. As per the prosecution, Bhatt, together with co-accused, conspired to border lawyer-Rajpurohit below the NDPS Act.
In March, 2024, a Classes court docket at Palanpur in Gujarat’s Banaskantha sentenced Bhatt to twenty years in jail. He was sentenced below NDPS Sections 21(c), 27A (punishment for financing illicit site visitors and harboring offenders). A tremendous of Rs 2 lakh was additionally imposed upon him.
The Gujarat Courtroom discovered him responsible below Sections 21(c), 27A, 29 (abetment and legal conspiracy to commit offence below NDPS Act), 58 (1) and (2) (vexatious entry, search, seizure and arrest) of the NDPS Act. He was additionally discovered responsible below Sections 465 (Forgery), 471 (utilizing cast doc), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect doc with intent to trigger harm), 204 (secrets and techniques or destroys any doc), 343 (wrongful confinement), 120B (legal conspiracy) and 34 (acts performed by a number of individuals in furtherance of frequent intent) of the IPC.
The SLP has been filed by way of Advocates Rajesh G. Inamdar and Shashwat Anand.
Case Title: SANJEEVKUMAR RAJENDRABHAI BHATT (IPS) v. STATE OF GUJARAT, SLP(Crl) No. 15846/2025
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