CBI helped some Ishrat Jahan case cops get bail: Vanzara

Suspended IPS officer D G Vanzara, who is in jail in connection with the alleged fake encounter killing of Ishrat Jahan and others, on Friday alleged in a special court that some police officers who are accused in the case got bail because they were tutored by CBI in giving statements. [caption id=“attachment_1649133” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ishrat Jahan. Ibnlive[/caption] Representing Vanzara, his advocate V D Gajjar told the special CBI court judge K R Upadhyaya that those officers who had given statements as asked by CBI managed to get the relief because the probe agency never challenged their bail pleas. “The accused police officers who were involved in the encounter, including IPS officer G L Singhal and others, were released on bail,” Gajjar said. He alleged the probe agency had not given proper reasons for not chargesheeting the then Police Commissioner of Ahmedabad, K R Kaushik who was named in the encounter case FIR. Gajjar also alleged Gujarat cadre IPS officer Satish Verma, who was one of the members of the High Court-appointed Special Investigating Team (SIT), wanted to “take revenge” on Vanzara. Vanzara’s submissions will continue tomorrow as well. In his bail plea submitted earlier in the encounter case, Vanzara had said that he merely followed the orders of his superiors. He had also said that inputs in this regard were generated by Intelligence Bureau (IB). Ishrat (19), a college student from Mumbra near Mumbai, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in the encounter with Gujarat police on the outskirts of the city on 15 June 2004. CBI, in its charge sheet, had said that the encounter was a staged one and carried out jointly by Gujarat police and Intelligence Bureau (IB). The agency had chargesheeted IPS officers P P Pandey, D G Vanzara, G L Singhal and Narendra K Amin along with other policemen including Tarun Barot, J G Parmar and Anaju Chaudhary for murder and criminal conspiracy. PTI