SC adjourns hearing on Sanjiv Bhatt's plea seeking suspension of sentence in custodial death case

The Supreme Court Wednesday adjourned the hearing on a plea of sacked Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking suspension of sentence in a 30-year-old custodial death case as one of the advocates appearing in the matter was suffering from swine flu.

However, the apex court which posted the next hearing on August 3, 2022, expressed its displeasure over frequent adjournments in the case for one or the other reasons.

A bench comprising Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna said it was giving a last chance to the parties and the matter will be heard on the fixed date.

''This matter has been adjourned time and again for one reason or another,'' the bench said adding that ''It is reported that Javedur Rahman, the Advocate on record, to whom papers are handed over by present AOR is suffering from swine flu. Therefore, by way of last chance, the matter will be next heard on August 3, 2022,'' the bench said. The Gujarat High Court had earlier refused to suspend Bhatt's sentence and observed he had had scant respect for courts and had deliberately tried to misuse the process of law and was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2019 in a 30-year-old case of custodial death.

The case is related 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 Advani's Rath Yatra. Subsequently, his brother lodged an FIR accusing Bhatt and six other policemen of killing his sibling by torturing him while he was in police detention.

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