The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition filed by the wife of arrested former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt challenging his arrest in a 22-year-old case of alleged planting of drugs to arrest an advocate.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph said the petition can be moved before the Gujarat High Court.
The petition had also alleged that Sanjiv Bhatt was not being allowed to sign any document in custody to enable him to approach the top court.
Sanjiv Bhatt and seven others, including some former policemen attached with the Banaskantha Police, were initially detained for questioning in the case.
Sanjiv Bhatt was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996.
As per the police, the Banaskantha Police under Sanjiv 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 the drugs were found in a hotel room which was occupied by Mr Rajpurohit in the district's Palanpur town.
However, an investigation by the Rajasthan Police reveal that Mr Rajpurohit was falsely implicated by the Banaskantha Police to compel him to transfer a disputed property at Pali in Rajasthan. It also stated that it found that Mr Rajpurohit was allegedly picked up by the Banaskantha Police from his residence at Pali in Rajasthan.
Following the Rajasthan Police's investigation, former police inspector of Banaskantha IB Vyas had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter.
In June this year, the high court had handed over the probe in the case to the CID while hearing the petition and asked it to complete the probe in three months.
Sanjiv Bhatt, a Gujarat cadre IPS officer, was suspended in 2011 on charges of remaining absent from duty without permission and misuse of official vehicles and later sacked in August, 2015.
Sanjiv Bhatt's wife Shweta has unsuccessfully contested the assembly election as a Congress party candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Maninagar constituency in Ahmedabad in 2012.
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