On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Gujarat government regarding former police officer Sanjiv Bhatt's appeal challenging his conviction and life sentence in connection with a 1990 custodial death case.

A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Prasanna B. Varale stated that the appeal will be scheduled alongside other appeals related to the case.

"Issue notice returnable in four weeks," the Court ordered.

Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Devadatt Kamat represented Bhatt, while Senior Advocate Maninder Singh appeared on behalf of the State of Gujarat.

In January, the Gujarat High Court dismissed former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt's appeal against the Jamnagar sessions court verdict in the custodial death case. Bhatt subsequently filed the current appeal through advocate Rajesh Gulab Inamdar.

Previously, in May of the previous year, the Supreme Court had denied Bhatt's request to present additional evidence before the High Court after (now-retired) Justice M.R. Shah declined to recuse himself from the case.

The case revolves around an incident from 1990, when Bhatt was serving as an additional superintendent of police in Jamnagar district. He had detained approximately 133 individuals under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) following a communal riot in the area.

The riots erupted following a Bharat Bandh called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on October 30, 1990, to protest the arrest of Lal Krishna Advani, then BJP chief, who was leading a Rath Yatra procession to Ayodhya concerning the Ram Mandir issue.

Among those detained, Prabhudas Vaishnani died shortly after being released from custody. His family accused Bhatt and his colleagues of subjecting him to custodial torture. They alleged that detainees were brutally beaten with sticks and forced to perform acts such as crawling on their elbows.

It was alleged that the detainees, including Prabhudas Vaishnani, were denied water, which contributed to damage to Vaishnani's kidneys. Vaishnani spent nine days in police custody and, after being released on bail, died of renal failure.

An FIR was registered against Bhatt and other officers for custodial death, with a Magistrate taking cognizance of the case in 1995. The case involved a total of seven police officers, including two sub-inspectors and three police constables.