A court in Saurashtra on Thursday framed charges against Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt and six others in a 1990 custodial death case.
Prabhudas Vaishnani died when he was in custody, after having been allegedly bashed up by the police on the night of October 30, 1990. Murder charges against Mr. Bhatt, who was Assistant Superintendent Police at the time of the incident, were made six years later in 1996.
It was in October last year that the court rejected Mr. Bhatt’s plea against the charges, and in November the Supreme Court gave him a reprieve for three months.
The IPS officer was placed under suspension after he had accused Chief Minister Narendra Modi of asking the police to soft-pedal cases against Hindus following the 2002 riots that left 1,100 people, mostly Muslims, dead.
