Custodial death: Apex court dismisses plea of sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt

New Delhi: In a setback to sacked Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain his plea seeking examination of 11 additional witnesses in a 30-year-old custodial death case in which he is facing the trial.

Bhatt had moved the apex court saying that examination of these 11 witnesses was crucial for arriving at a just and fair decision in the case.

The Gujarat Police strongly opposed his plea before a vacation bench of justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi and termed it as a "tactic to delay the outcome of the case".

Senior advocate Maninder Singh and advocate Rajat Nair, appearing for the state police, told the bench that the lower court has reserved its verdict in the case and the judgement is scheduled to be pronounced on June 20.

Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Bhatt, contended that the examination of these witnesses was crucial for a fair trial in the case.

However, Singh told the court that this case has been dragged for almost three decades and since a three-judge bench of the apex court had already passed an order on May 24 on a similar plea, the court should not entertain Bhatt's petition.

The bench, after perusing the May 24 order, said it will not interfere with the order passed by the three-judge bench and dismissed Bhatt's petition.

During the hearing, the bench also questioned Bhatt's counsel for the delay in approaching the apex court against the April 16 order of the Gujarat High Court.

"Why have you not come to the court earlier? The impugned order is of April 16. This court had passed the May 24 order on a petition against the same high court order," the bench told Khurshid.

During the hearing, Singh told the bench that final arguments are over in the 1989 custodial death case and the trial court has fixed the matter for pronouncement of verdict on June 20.

He referred to the May 24 order and said the three-judge bench had directed the lower court not to delay the case any more and conclude the trial by June 20.