A sessions court in Gujarat’s Jamnagar town has issued a bailable arrest warrant against Sanjiv Bhatt in 1990 case related to a man’s death due to alleged police beating a lawyer said.
The warrant was issued on Tuesday.
The state government had suspended Bhatt from service earlier this month. He had shot into the limelight when he filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court claiming he was present at a meeting called by Chief Minister Narendra Modi at his residence on the night after the 2002 Godhra train carnage, where the signal for action against Muslims was allegedly given.
The warrant was issued by additional sessions judge N.T. Solanki because he failed to appear before the court on Tuesday for the hearing of the 1990 case which was earlier sought to be closed by the State government but re-opened after he took cudgel against Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Bhatt said he could not attend the hearing in Jamnagar on Tuesday because he was busy filing a petition in the Gujarat High Court challenging the government’s decision to withdraw the revision petition, for which the sessions court promptly issued the bailable warrant against him.
The case pertains to a communal violence in Jamjodhpur taluk on October 30, 1990, following which 133 persons were arrested by the police under Mr. Bhatt, who was then district deputy superintendent. One of them, Prabhudas Vaishnani, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist, died 11 days after he was released from police custody. His brother Amrutlal Vaishnani filed a police complaint against Mr. Bhatt and some other policemen for the alleged custodial death.
The case was investigated by the State CID (crime), which in 1992 sought sanction from the State government under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code to prosecute Mr. Bhatt and others. The government, however, in 1995 submitted before the court that Mr. Bhatt and other police officials had “acted in good faith” and asked the CID (crime) to file a closure report.