AHMEDABAD: Suspended IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt, who was arrested last Friday, will have to remain in jail at least till next Monday with a local court adjourning the hearing on his bail plea.
Sessions Judge V K Vyas adjourned the hearing since the arguments from the government’s side opposing the grant of bail were inconclusive. Bhatt is in judicial custody since September 30.
The state’s contention is that Bhatt allegedly has criminal antecedents and therefore can misuse the bail.
Bhatt’s lawyer I H Sayed sought bail on two main grounds: the complainant K D Pant, a police constable, has been changing his statement with regard to his allegation that Bhatt threatened him and made him sign false affidavits.
Secondly, police had no power to invoke sections 193, 194 and 195 of Indian Penal Code (related to fabrication of evidence) against Bhatt since it was upto the courts to invoke these sections after due inquiry.
Sayed further said that as the procedure under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was not followed, the three IPC sections could not have been invoked.
Special public prosecutor S V Raju submitted that Bhatt had been charged for appropriate offences under IPC.Raju countered this saying that section 340 of CrPC did not curtail police’s power to investigate and invoke certain sections.
In a related matter, Principal Sessions Judge G N Patel adjourned till Monday the pronouncement of order on the maintainability of the remand revision application filed by Gujarat government seeking custody of Bhatt.(PTI)