Guj HC stays its order rejecting Sanjeev Bhatt's plea

Ahmedabad, Jul 23: The

High Court today stayed its own order rejecting suspended IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt's plea to set aside criminal procedure initiated against him in a 1990 custodial death case.

After the pronouncement of the order rejecting the petition on Friday, Bhatt's advocate IH Syed requested for a stay on it for four weeks to enable him to challenge it in the Supreme Court.

Today, after hearing the arguments from all the parties in the case, Justice RH Shukla directed to stay his order for three weeks. "As the result of the stay, all the proceedings against Bhatt will also be stayed till Aug 13, which were likely to be initiated in Jamnagar sessions court," Syed said.

Jamnagar sessions court was slated to frame charges against all the accused, including Bhatt, in the case of death of one - Prabhudas Vaishnani who allegedly succumbed to injuries sustained by him in police custody on the night of Oct 30, 1990.

As an assistant superintendent of police in Jamnagar in Oct 1990, Bhatt had detained many BJP workers at Jamkhabhalia, who were protesting the arrest of LK Advani after his 'rath yatra' was stopped.

Prabhudas Vaishnani was one of those who were detained. He later died in police custody and Prabhudas's brother Amrutlal Vaishnani had lodged a case against Bhatt and other policemen.

PTI