Thursday, April 26, 2012

More trouble for Bhatt as cops file new torture case


Two days after the Supreme Court stayed all the proceedings against suspended
IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in an alleged false affidavit case, the Jamnagar police on Sunday
registered a complaint of torture against him in connection with a 21-year-old incident.
In response to an application filed by one Vijyasinh Bhatti, a resident of
Jamnagar, seeking action against Bhatt for allegedly beating him up in custody, as a
result of which he suffered kidney failure, the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court has
recently ordered reinvestigation of the case.
The police said Bhatt has been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal
Code for wrongful confinement and causing hurt.
Bhatti, 40, had filed an application before the Magistrate Court in January
alleging police inaction. “Twenty-one years have passed since (a Jamnagar) court ordered
police to submit a report, but there has been no development in this case,” said Bhatti.
In his application, Bhatti has said that on October 10,1990, when he was on his
way back home to Jamnagar from Chela village, Bhatt arrested him as a curfew was
imposed in the district.
The next day, Bhatt allegedly took him to the police headquarters in Jamnagar
where he was forced to do 200 sit-ups and beaten up with sticks, which led to kidney
failure. On the second day, he along with some other arrested persons was produced in a
court that granted him bail, stated the application, adding that he was soon admitted to a
hospital in Jamnagar and later shifted to the Gondhiya hospital in Rajkot, where doctors
had diagnosed kidney failure.
Bhatti said he was then taken to a Mumbai hospital for advanced treatment.
Bhatti, who is now bed-ridden, further said that he had then received a
compensation of Rs 1,000 from the government but no action was taken against the then
ASP Bhatt as the police never submitted a report sought by a local court based on his
complaint filed on January 16, 1991. The court had then ordered an inquiry by an officer
of SP rank and sought a report in this regard by February 7, 1991.