Ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt acquitted, but to stay in jail

Bhatt to undergo 20-yr jail term in 1996 case related to planting of drugs and life imprisonment for 1990 custodial death case

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A court in Gujarat's Porbandar has acquitted ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1997 custodial torture case, citing that the prosecution could not "prove the case beyond reasonable doubt".

Additional chief judicial magistrate Mukesh Pandya on Saturday acquitted Bhatt, the then superintendent of police (SP) of Porbandar, in a case registered against him under IPC sections pertaining to causing grievous hurt to obtain confession and other provisions by giving him the benefit of the doubt due to lack of evidence.

Bhatt was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case in Jamnagar and 20 years in jail in a 1996 case relating to planting drugs to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer in Palanpur. He is currently lodged in the Rajkot Central Jail.