Sanjiv Bhatt victim of political vindictiveness, say wife and son

New Delhi, Jul 8: The wife of former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case, on Sunday alleged her husband was a victim of political vindictiveness and there was a threat to her life.

Bhatt was suspended in 2011 after he filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing Narendra Modi, then Gujarat chief minister and now Prime Minister, of involvement in riots in the state in 2002.

The officer was dismissed in 2015 over unauthorised absence and other charges. Bhatt was arrested last year for allegedly fabricating evidence in a 1996 case and has been in Palanpur jail for more than 10 months.

At a press conference, Shweta Bhatt said her family has had a hard time since Sanjiv was convicted in the case and it has “torn them apart”.

The case is related to the custodial deaths of Prabhudas Vaishnani, who was among 133 people caught by Jamnagar police after a communal riot during L K Advani’s Rath Yatra.

She said her husband had “neither arrested nor detained anyone as he was not empowered to do so. Secondly, Prabhudas died 18 days after he was detained. He never complained of torture before the magistrate or anybody else.”

“It was not the family of Prabhudas but a member of the VHP, Amrutlal Vaishnani, who filed a complaint of custodial torture,” she claimed.

She said: “Our security was withdrawn. Just before a bail hearing (in January), a dumper truck without a registration plate and in a place where heavy vehicles are not permitted rammed into my car and dragged us until we hit a divider. The driver of the truck had no papers on him. Half of my house, which is 23 years old, has been broken down by authorities (last year), and we have been billed Rs 2.5 lakh as demolition charges. Wherever I go I am followed and photographed. Why do you think it is happening?”