NEW DELHI: A

court on Thursday sentenced suspended IPS officer

to life imprisonment in a 30-year-old custodial death case.

The case dates back to 1990 when Sanjiv Bhatt was posted as the additional superintendent of police in

.

According to the prosecution, Bhatt had detained more than hundred people during a communal riot and one of the detainees had died in hospital after he was released.

The Supreme Court on June 12 had refused to entertain the IPS officer's plea seeking examination of 11 additional witnesses in the case. 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

strongly opposed his plea before a vacation bench of justices

and Ajay Rastogi and termed it as a "tactic to delay the outcome of the case".

Sanjiv Bhatt was suspended in 2011 on charges of remaining absent from duty without permission and misuse of official vehicles, and later sacked in August 2015.

Bhatt is known for the affidavit he filed in the Supreme Court alleging the then Gujarat CM, Narendra Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.