AHMEDABAD: Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested on Wednesday by the Gujarat CID in connection with a 22-year-old narcotics case.
According to Hindustan Times reports, Bhatt, a known critic of Prime Minister Modi, along with several other people, including two former policemen, were detained for interrogation.
There was no immediate comment from the CID except confirmation of the interrogation.
DGP CID (crime) Ashish Bhatia told The Indian Express, “3-4 months back the Gujarat high court had asked the CID to investigate this case and we had formed a SIT which probed and found Sanjiv Bhatt had made out a false case against the lawyer. We have taken him for questioning. In all, we have 7 persons detained.”
As per the case details, Bhatt, who was the Banaskantha district superintendent of police in 1996 had allegedly arrested a Rajasthan-based advocate Surmersingh Rajpurohit on charges of carrying around 1.5 kg of narcotics.
At that time, the narcotics were recovered from a hotel room occupied by Mr. Rajpurohit in the Lajwanti City Hotel of district’s Palanpur town and the Banaskatha police under Bhatt detained lawyer on charges of possession of drugs.
However, it emerged Rajpurohit was allegedly kidnapped from his residence in Pali, in Rajasthan, and the parcel of narcotics was allegedly planted by the Banaskantha police.