AHMEDABAD: Dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested on Wednesday in a case that goes back 22 years to 1996, when he is alleged to have planted drugs in a Palanpur hotel room to frame a lawyer in order to pressurise his relatives into vacating property owned by a judge’s sister.The twists and turns of the case had led to the matter reaching the Gujarat high court, in 1998 and 1999, when a CBI probe was demanded on FIRs filed in Palanpur, Gujarat and Pali, Rajasthan Gujarat HC heard the case 20 years later and in June ordered state CID to investigate, following which Bhatt, then DSP of Banaskantha, was arrested along with retired cop IB Vyas, who was an inspector under Bhatt.Additional DGP of CID Ajay Tomar said the agency took over the probe in June this year following the HC order. Curiously, the petition for investigation had been demanded by Vyas himself and former HC judge, R R Jain, the one who allegedly sought Bhatt’s help in 1996. “Bhatt and subordinates planted 1.015 kg opium in Hotel Lajwanti to implicate Rajasthan lawyer Sumersingh Rajpurohit on April 30, 1996,” Tomar said. “They were involved in a conspiracy to pressurise Rajpurohit to vacate a shop in Pali.” Police may also book Bhatt and Vyas under the narcotics Act. “Others have been summoned. More arrests are likely,” he added.Bhatt hit the headlines in 2011 after he filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying he was present in a meeting at then chief minister Narendra Modi ’s residence on February 27, 2002. Bhatt accused Modi of directing the police to go slow on rioters and was dismissed from service in 2015.Banaskantha police had raided Hotel Lajwanti in 1996 on a tip-off that Rajpurohit had plans to sell 5 kg opium. Cops found 1.015 kg opium in the room and on May 2 arrested Rajpurohit.