Gujarat court acquits former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in torture case

A Gujarat court has acquitted former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a 1997 custodial torture case. The court found that the prosecution failed to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt, leading to Bhatt's release. Bhatt was previously sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case and 20 years in a 1996 drug planting case. He remains in Rajkot Central Jail while appealing his earlier convictions. The court noted that necessary sanctions for prosecuting Bhatt, a public servant at the time, were not obtained. The case involved allegations of torture to extract a confession from a suspect in a terrorism-related case.