Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Monday dismissed suspended IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt's plea for stay on ongoing criminal proceedings against him in a 1990 incident of alleged police atrocity that resulted in the death of one person.
Bhatt, in his petition, had challenged the legality and validity of the order of a Jamnagar district court refusing to defer framing of charges against him in the 21-year-old case.
He had sought quashing of the order of Jamnagar court and further demanded stay on all proceedings against him in relation to the case till the criminal revision application filed by him there is decided upon first.
Justice MR Shah, hearing the case, dismissed Bhatt's petition saying that there was no need to restrain the court from framing charges against the accused.
The High Court, however, observed that framing of charges against Bhatt would be subject to the outcome of his criminal revision application which the Jamnagar court would decide upon after hearing him and the prosecution.
Justice Shah during the course of arguments further said that framing of charges against the accused after 21 years was denying justice to the victim.
The Jamnagar court is scheduled to frame charges against Bhatt and six other accused in the case tomorrow.
On December 9, a fast track court of Jamkhambhalia taluka in Jamnagar rejected Bhatt's application seeking deferment on framing of charges against him.
Bhatt's advocate I H Syed argued that the Jamnagar court, while rejecting the plea for deferment of framing of charges, did not consider the criminal revision application and plea for condonation pending before the same court.
The Jamnagar court's framing of charges against Bhatt and other accused would render the suspended IPS officer's criminal revision application infructuous and cause prejudice against him, he added.
Bhatt's petition was opposed by the state government and the victim's advocate who alleged that it was merely delaying tactics to avoid prosecution in the 1990 case.
As per case details, one Prahbudas Vaishnani, who was arrested during a communal flare-up at Jamkhambhalia town at Jamnagar in 1990, died in a hospital few days after he was released from police custody.
Following this Vaishnani's family members filed a complaint against Bhatt and six others for police atrocity leading to the death of a person.
The case was probed by the state CID, which gave Bhatt and other cops a clean chit, but the magistrate presiding over the case did not accept CID report and initiated criminal proceedings against Bhatt and others.
The Gujarat government had then the position that Bhatt and others had acted in discharge of their official responsibilities and filed a revision petition in the session court in 1996 halting the criminal proceedings.
This revision petition was withdrawn by the state government in July thereby exposing Bhatt and others to prosecution.
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