Supreme Court Dismisses Jailed Ex-IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt's Plea to Suspend Sentence in Drug Case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (December 11) refused to suspend the 20-year jail sentence imposed on jailed ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a case of drug planting dating back to 1996.

Representing Bhatt, when senior advocate Kapil Sibal submitted that he has undergone 7 years and 3 months of sentence, a bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi stated that Bhatt can seek an early hearing of the matter, reported LiveLaw.

"Why? I have already undergone more than half the sentence," Sibal submitted, to which Justice Maheshwari replied by saying that the quantity of drugs involved was quite high – 5kg.

Sibal refuted this by saying that this allegation of the prosecution has not been proved, and the conviction was for the possession of 1.015 kg of opium. He added that because it was not commercial quantity, Section 21(c) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act will not apply.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, who appeared for the State opposed Sibal’s plea saying that during the time when Bhatt was a DSP, he conspired to finance the procurement of opium.

The bench dismissed the application and observed that it was not inclined to entertain the matter.

"That means I will be inside now for 3 more years," said Sibal after the order was dictated, reported LiveLaw.

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