Ahmedabad: A Gujarat court on Thursday (June 20) sentenced former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt to life imprisonment in a custodial death case which took place in 1990.

The Jamnagar sessions court charged Sanjiv Bhatt under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code which deals with punishment for murder.

Speaking to reporters, public prosecutor Tushar Gokani said, "After the complete trial in 1990 Jam Jodhpur custodial death case, Jamnagar Sessions Court booked accused Sanjeev Bhatt and Pravinsinh Jhala under section 302 while the others are booked for torturing. For IPC 302 minimum punishment is life imprisonment, and the maximum is death."

The case concerns the death of a man named Prabhudas Madhavji Vaishnani who died on November 11, 1990, due to the torture faced in police custody.

He was among the 133 people detained after communal riots plagued the Jam Jodhpur village in Gujarat ahead of BJP veteran LK Advani's rath yatra.

Bhatt was posted as the additional superintendent of police in Gujarat's Jamnagar when the incident took place.

This case went on for three decades after which the Supreme Court ordered that the judgement should be given before June 20 in 2019 by the Jamnagar Sessions Court.

In 2011, Bhatt was suspended on charges of remaining absent from duty without permission and misuse of official vehicles and later sacked in August 2015.