A court in Gujarat’s Porbandar has acquitted former Indian Police Service officer Sanjeev Bhatt in the custodial torture case, saying the government could not prove the allegations.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Mukesh Pandya on Saturday acquitted then SP Bhatt of Porbandar due to lack of evidence in the case registered against him under sections of the IPC. Earlier, Bhatt was sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case in Jamnagar and 20 years imprisonment in a 1996 Palanpur case related to possession of drugs to entrap a Rajasthan lawyer. He is currently lodged in the Central Jail in Rajkot.
The court said that the government could not prove the allegations that the complainant was forced to confess the crime and was forced to surrender by using dangerous weapons and threats. The court also considered that the necessary permission was not taken to prosecute the accused in the case. -News-Patiala