Ahmedabad: Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested Wednesday by the Gujarat CID in connection with a 22-year-old case of alleged planting of drugs to arrest a man, police said.
Bhatt and seven others, including some former policemen attached with the Banaskantha Police, were initially detained for questioning in the case. Shortly after being questioned, Bhatt was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department while others are still kept under detention, Director General of Police, CID, Ashish Bhatia said. Bhatt was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996. He was dismissed from the service in 2015.
As per the case details, the Banaskantha Police under Bhatt had arrested one Sumersingh Rajpurohit, an advocate, in 1996 on charges of possessing around one kg of drugs.
At that time, the Banaskantha Police had claimed that drugs were found in a hotel room occupied by Rajpurohit in the district's Palanpur town.
However, a probe by the Rajasthan Police had revealed that Rajpurohit was allegedly falsely implicated by the Banaskantha Police to compel him to transfer a disputed property at Pali in Rajasthan.
It had also found that Rajpurohit was allegedly abducted by the Banaskantha Police from his residence at Pali in Rajasthan.
Following the Rajasthan Police's investigation, former police inspector of Banaskantha, I B Vyas, had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the matter.