Custodial death case: Supreme Court dismisses Sanjiv Bhatt's plea

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea by sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt to submit additional evidence to support his appeal in the Gujarat High Court against his conviction in a 1990 custodial death caseEarlier in the day the top court also rejected Bhatts plea seeking recusal of Justice M R Shah from hearing the matter Bhatts lawyer on Tuesday contended that there was a reasonable apprehension of bias as Justice Shah as a high court judge had castigated the petitioner while hearing his plea linked to the same FIRHowever it was opposed by the counsel for the Gujarat government and the complainant who called it forum shopping and asked why he had not objected earlierAn apex court bench of Justices M R Shah and CT Ravikumar said it was not inclined to interfere with the high court order It asked the high court to dispose of the appeal filed by Bhatt in accordance with the law after reappreciation of the evidence considered by the trial courtBhatt had filed an appeal in the high court challenging his conviction in the case of the custodial death of Prabhudas Vaishnani who was caught by Jamnagar police after a communal riot On Tuesday senior advocate Devadatt Kamat appearing for Bhatt submitted that Justice Shah had passed strictures and castigated the petitioner while hearing Bhatts petition arising out of the same FIR as a high court judgeI have the highest respect for this court But justice should not only be done but also seen to be done Judicial propriety demands that your lordship may not hear the matter Kamat had said adding that the issue is of reasonable apprehension of biasAlso read Bilkis Bano case SC defers till July 11 hearing on pleas against remissionSenior advocate Maninder Singh representing the Gujarat government had opposed Bhatts plea of recusal and said there is no bona fide in his submission as several other cases have been heard by Justice Shah where no such prayer was madeYou cannot have prayer for recusal on the ground of selective basis Selective prayer for recusal would constitute contempt of court Singh had said In August 2022 Bhatt had withdrawn his plea in the apex court seeking suspension of his life sentence in the 30yearold custodial death caseThe high court had earlier refused to suspend Bhatts sentence and observed he had scant respect for courts and deliberately tried to misuse the process of law He was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2019 in the caseThe case relates to the custodial death of Prabhudas Vaishnani who was among 133 people caught by Jamnagar police after a communal riot broke out following a bandh call in view of BJP leader L K Advanis Rath YatraSubsequently his brother lodged an FIR accusing Bhatt who was then posted as additional superintendent of police in Jamnagar and six other policemen of torturing Vaishnani to death in custodyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever