Sanjiv Bhatt

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sanjiv Bhatt

• In 1985, after completing his M.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Sanjiv Bhatt started preparing for the UPSC examination.

• In 1988, Sanjiv Bhatt cleared the UPSC examination and joined the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) in Telangana. Later, in the same year, Sanjiv Bhatt was commissioned as an IPS in the Gujarat cadre.

• In 1990, Sanjiv Bhatt was given his first posting in Jamnagar as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP).

• In the same year, there were protests amidst the senior BJP leader L. K. Advani‘s rath yatra through the city that led to an outbreak of communal violence in Jamnagar. Sanjiv Bhatt and the police force under his command took 150 people under preventive custody to stop the widespread violence in the city and to restore law and order in the city of Jamnagar.

• Sanjiv Bhatt was given a promotion in 1996, and he was made a Superintendent of Police (SP). After his promotion, he was posted to the Banaskantha district of Gujarat.

• In 1999, Sanjiv Bhatt was promoted to the rank of Deputy Commissioner, and he was sent to Gandhinagar to take charge of the state’s Intelligence Bureau (IB). As a Deputy Commissioner, Sanjiv was in charge of maintaining the security of the coastal areas, the internal areas of Gujarat, and the high-value state installations. He was also given the charge of the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi’s security. He remained in the state’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) till the end of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

  

• In 2002, after the end of the Gujarat riots, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) accused the then CM of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, of mocking the high birth rate among the Muslim community in Gujarat, which, according to the commission, came under hate speech. The commission demanded that the state authorities should hand over Narendra Modi’s speech transcripts, as evidence of hate speech, to them. In response, the state denied having any records of the speech.

• In 2002, Sanjiv Bhatt and his senior R. B. Sreekumar presented a copy of the transcript before the commission, as a result of which, both Sanjiv and Sreekumar were shunted and sent on punishment postings by the Gujarat government. ^[20]Rediff.com A state IB officer, in an interview, said,
  

  There were attempts by the state government to make the bureau withhold the cassette from the Intelligence Bureau headquarters in Gandhinagar to prevent it from becoming a part of the official records against the Chief Minister.”

• In 2002, after falling out of favour with the Gujarat government, Sanjiv Bhatt was sent on irrelevant postings. He was sent to the State Reserve Police Training College (SRPTC) in Junagadh in 2002, as a Principal.

• A few months later, in 2003, Sanjiv Bhatt was posted to the Sabarmati Central Jail as a Superintendent, where he, reportedly, made several efforts to improve the living conditions of the prisoners. He also became famous in the jail for introducing Gajar Ka Halwa, a dessert, for the inmates.

• Sanjiv Bhatt’s popularity among the prisoners grew more after he appointed the inmates, who were accused and were on a trial for the 2002 Godhra train incident, on the trial committee.

• Barely after two months after being posted as a Superintendent of the Sabarmati Central Jail, Sanjiv Bhatt, on 18 November 2003, was posted out of the jail by the state government. When the prisoners came to know of the transfer of the IPS, nearly 3000 inmates went on a hunger strike. During the hunger strike, six inmates slashed their wrists in protest, which lead to a riot-like situation in the jail. ^[21]The Times of India

• Sanjiv Bhatt could not make it to a higher rank because many departmental cases were pending against him. One of his colleagues, in an interview with The Indian Express, claimed that while Sanjiv was denied timely promotions, his batchmates from the 1988 cadre were given promotions, and many, by 2007, had become Inspector General of Police (IGP). He further stated,
  

  The number of criminal cases and departmental inquiries he faced through various political regimes made him ineligible for any timely promotions. Meanwhile, all his colleagues from the 1988 batch of IPS are already IGPs.”

• In 2011, the Gujarat government suspended the IPS officer for remaining absent from duty for a prolonged period, without providing any prior information about the leaves to the authorities. He was also reprimanded for using his official vehicle for personal use. In his defence, Sanjiv Bhatt claimed that he could not report to duty, as he was being summoned, time and again, by the Nanavati-Mehta Commission (NMC), a committee which was established by the Gujarat government to probe the incidents about the 2002 Gujarat riots.

• In 2012, Sanjiv Bhatt wrote an open letter to Narendra Modi, accusing him of sacrificing his followers for his personal and political gains. He, in his letter, further accused the then CM of Gujarat of killing innocents to exert his power on the state. ^[22]Hindustan Times

• Sanjiv Bhatt was given an award for social activism in 2013. He was presented the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice by the Harmony Foundation.

  

• In 2015, after having served as an IPS officer for 27 years, Sanjiv Bhatt was removed from the service by the government due to an unauthorised absence from duty and failure to report before an inquiry committee.

• In an interview with The Indian Express, Swati Bhatt claimed that at a time when not many youngsters were enthusiastic about joining the police force as an officer, Sanjiv Bhatt was Gujarat’s first IPS officer, who was recruited from the state.

• Shweta Bhatt in an interview claimed that she met Sanjiv when they both were preparing for the UPSC examinations. The couple dated each other for a year and a half, before getting married. Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife, Shweta Bhatt, in an interview, claimed,
  

  Sanjiv was determined to be a police officer. We courted for a year and then we got married in 1987 and I gave up my career.”

• Sanjiv Bhatt introduces himself as an Inspector General of Police (IGP) on social media.

• In 2018, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) demolished the illegal parts of his bungalow. The action was taken by the AMC on the order of the Supreme Court. ^[23]The Times of India

• According to an interview given by his wife to The Indian Express, Sanjiv Bhatt is a fitness enthusiast, who goes on a 15 km run, every day.