New Delhi:
Anti-Narendra Modi police officer Sanjiv Bhatt has withdrawn a petition against the Gujarat government after the Supreme Court told him that it would not interfere with the state's decision not to support him in a 1990 custodial death case.
The cop withdrew the case after the Supreme Court told him that he should take the matter to a lower court. The Supreme Court observed, "It is shocking that for 21 years the alleged custodial death has not been tried."
The case relates to a 1990 riot incident in Jamjodhpur, Jamnagar district, where a man had allegedly died due to torture in custody. Mr Bhatt was then an assistant superintendent of police in Jamnagar and the victim's relatives had accused him of involvement in the alleged custodial death.
The Gujarat government had then sought in a trial court that Mr Bhatt not be prosecuted in the case and that the case be closed. The trial court in Gujarat had rejected the public prosecutor's application and the state government had moved the district court.
That was 15 years ago, in 1996. When the case came up for hearing this year, a lot had changed. For one, Sanjiv Bhatt had made allegations against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his government of being soft on rioters during the post-Godhra 2002 riots that left about 1,200 Muslims dead across the state.
This time the Gujarat government decided to withdraw its application seeking closure of the old case against Mr Bhatt. The cop challenged this decision before the Gujarat High Court, which dismissed his plea. Mr Bhatt then moved Supreme Court. Mr Bhatt's lawyer pleaded before the court that the incident was not one of custodial death.