Ishrat Jahan case: CBI likely to question Modi's aide Amit Shah

New Delhi: CBI might question Narendra Modi’s close aide Amit Shah in connection with the Ishrat Jahan encounter case after claims made by jailed IPS officer DG Vanzara that Gujarat government was “inspiring, guiding and monitoring” every police action from “very close quarters”.

CBI sources said Vanzara, during his questioning by CBI in Sabarmati Jail, has reiterated the stand taken by him in the resignation letter that police officials accused in various encounter cases were merely implementing “conscious policy” of the state government towards terrorism.

Highly-placed sources said that no final decision has been taken on the issue of questioning Shah but Vanzara’s statement is under examination and if needed, the former minister could be quizzed during the investigations.

They said the agency would be filing supplementary charge sheet

s in connection with the encounter case giving details of the conspiracy and alleged cover up by officials of Gujarat government.

Vanzara had claimed, they said, in the resignation letter that he and other accused officials had implemented the “conscious policy of this government, which was inspiring, guiding and monitoring our actions from very close quarters”.

According to the sources, he also said during questioning that Shah, who was Minister of State for Home, “ditched” the police officers who got embroiled in the encounter cases.

Vanzara, who is lodged in Sabarmati jail after CBI named him as main accused in the 2004 fake encounter case, was quizzed about the contents of his resignation letter in which he also faulted Modi.

The 59-year-old former Deputy Inspector General of Police sent his resignation letter on September 1 in which he expressed bitterness over the way the Modi government had failed to stand by him and other officers who implemented the state’s “conscious policy” of “eliminating terrorism”.

A 1987-batch IPS officer, Vanzara had said, “This government, through the dirty tactics of Amitbhai Shah, is unfortunately managing only for its own self so as to swim and continue to prosper in all directions, while ditching the police officers so as to sink and allow them to die unnatural death by drowning.”

The CBI questioned him about the “tactics”, as alleged by him in his resignation letter, used by Shah when he was the Minister of State for Home, agency sources said.

Shah, a close aide of Modi, was arrested on July 25, 2010 in connection with the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin case and released on bail on October 29 the same year.

Vanzara was then considered to be close to Modi. In particular, his letter accuses Shah of betraying him and 32 other officers who are now in jail in connection with various encounter cases from Gujarat that CBI is probing.

Vanzara says in the letter that he once adored Modi as a ‘god’, who could not rise to the occasion under the “evil” influence of Shah.

Shah is Vanzara’s co-accused in Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati encounter cases.

PTI