Sanjiv Bhatt
Saeed Khan, TNN | Apr 6, 2013, 01.49 PM IST

Sanjiv Bhatt, who was posted as SP in Porbandar then, along with a constable Vajubhai Chau is being tried for the custodial a known historysheeter Naran Sudha Jadav.

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AHMEDABAD: Gujarat high court has issued notice to the state government on a plea filed by suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who has sought permission to place a case diary of the RDX landing case to defend himself in a custodial torture case in Porbandar.

Bhatt, who was posted as SP in Porbandar then, along with a constable Vajubhai Chau is being tried for the custodial a known historysheeter Naran Sudha Jadav. The inmate was taken to Porbandar from Sabarmati central jail in Ahmedabad in 1998 in connection with investigation of a Tada case related to the RDX landing. Jadav later filed a complaint accusing Bhatt and Chau of custodial torture.

A case in this regard began in Porbandar’s magisterial court. Last year, the high court vacated a stay from the trial. As the trial began, Bhatt argued that all three witnesses in the trial were prisoners and the investigating officer should be made an independent witness and his case diary should be placed before the court as evidence in his defence.

The Porbandar court rejected Bhatt’s application, and this led him to move the HC. During a proceeding, Justice S R Brahmbhatt questioned whether the state government was interested in the case against the suspended IPS officer. Bhatt has alleged that in order to fix him, the state government has been defending Jadav, who is a security suspect and has been implicated in various serious offences of murder, waging war against the nation and a Tada case.

The court has sought the state government’s reply by Monday, when further hearing is scheduled.

Bhatt is also facing trial in a custodial torture case in Jamnagar district.

Bhatt implicated chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots by giving a statement before the special investigation team (SIT) and b