Sacked IPS officer Bhatt arrested in 22-year-old drug case

DELHI: The Gujarat Police on Wednesday arrested sacked Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 22-year-old drug possession case.

The crime investigation department (CID) of the Gujarat Police arrested Bhatt after a probe was ordered into the case by the Gujarat High Court in June. The court had also asked the police to finish the investigation within three months.

Six other people, including two former cops, have also been detained by the police for questioning, police sources said. A retired high court judge is also involved in the case.

In 1996, then superintendent of police of Banaskantha Bhatt had falsely implicated a Rajasthan-based lawyer Sumersingh Rajpurohit under the Narcotic Drugs and Pschotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in Palanpur.

Banaskanta Police had claimed that the drug was found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the district's Palanpur town. However, a probe by the Rajasthan police revealed that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated and that he was reportedly abducted by the Banaskatha Police from his residence in Pali.

Bhatt, a 1988 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, was suspended after he filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that he 'had attended the meeting held by the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi, who had asked the top police officials to let Hindus vent out their anger against the minority community following the attack on the Sabarmati Express in which 59 Hindus were torched to death near Godhra railway station.

'Bhatt, whose tenure has remained controversial, had also accused the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team formed to probe the Gujarat riots case of "shielding Mr Modi and top-ranking police officials of Gujarat." He was sacked by the Union ministry of home affairs in August 2015 for "unauthorised absence" from service.