Custodial death case baseless, Shweta Bhatt says in FB post

Shweta Bhatt, wife of former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in an alleged custodial death case dating back to 1990, has called her husband’s conviction a “miscarriage of justice”, and claimed that he had been “implicated in a fabricated case”.

She said she would fight for justice for her husband and their family.

In a detailed post on Facebook, she claimed that the “so-called custodial death” case was baseless and Bhatt, who was posted as Assistant Superintendent of Police Jamnagar at the time had nothing to do with the case or the person who had apparently died after he was detained by the local police following communal riots in Jamjodhpur town.

“The deceased, Prabhudas Madhavji Vaishnani, was arrested by a local police team hours before Sanjiv Bhatt and his staff had reached the Jamjodhpur Police Station,” she said, adding, “At no point in time were any of the arrested 133 persons, including the deceased and his brother, in custody of Sanjiv Bhatt or any of his staff. None of the arrested 133 persons, including the deceased and his brother, were interrogated by Sanjiv Bhatt or any of his staff.”

Ms. Bhatt claimed that the complaint filed against her husband was a “classic case of political vindictiveness”.