The loneliness of former encounter specialist DG Vanzara

How DG Vanzara, IPS, IGP (Suspended) must wish that he had chosen to wear green khakis instead of brown ones. How he must wish that he was fighting the ISI’s evil designs not in Gujarat but in Jammu and Kashmir or Manipur, protected by the blanket cover of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). In another reality, the trigger happy Vanzara would have had a chest overflowing with medals, sitting in a plush assignment; certainly not languishing in prison without even the prospect of bail. But Vanzara chose the life of an ‘encounter specialist’. Much like spies, encounter cops operate in the twilight zone between what is legal and what is illegal. Vanzara is probably right when he says that he (and his men) was only carrying out the conscious policy of the state. [caption id=“attachment_1084217” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] AFP[/caption] Unfortunately for him, what is conscious policy is not made explicit through written orders. The suspended cop can point a finger at Amit Shah and Narendra Modi, but there isn’t likely to be even a shred of a paper trail leading up to them for the acts that Vanzara finds himself behind bars. Much like spies, if encounter cops get caught in the ‘act’ they are on their own, disowned by the political establishment. This is hardly unique to Gujarat. It has happened in Punjab, in Maharashtra, in Kashmir and other parts of the country where men and women not named Narendra Modi have framed the conscious policy of the state. Spare a thought for the understandably frustrated DG Vanzara. The men and women he is accused of ‘murdering’ extra-judicially were hardly innocent citizens. By the account of the Intelligence Bureau (under the Union Government) and David Coleman Headley, Ishrat Jahan and her accomplices (killed by Vanzara and his team) were linked with the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Sohrabuddin Sheikh (for whose murder Vanzara was arrested) was a notorious criminal, a gangster and extortionist who operated with impunity in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The recently lamented Tulsi Prajapati (whose killing is the subject of an unverified CD) was an associate of Sheikh. From Vanzara’s point of view, he was only doing his duty of eliminating criminals/terrorists and deserves political protection for doing so. In democracies that operate under some semblance of rule of law, that is easier said than done. Once it was made public (with considerable evidence) that Vanzara and his men had killed all of the above in cold blood, prison was inevitable. Even Amit Shah, the then Home Minister of the state wasn’t spared a chargesheet. It may have been easier for Shah to get bail, not simply because he had a top lawyer like Ram Jethmalani (as Vanzara insinuates in his letter), but because he, unlike Vanzara, didn’t actually pull the trigger. It’s tough to find a paper trail that leads to Shah. Once upon a time, in the early 2000s, DG Vanzara was a high flyer. His career was on the fast track. He believed that he had the trust of Chief Minister Modi and Home Minister Shah. But ultimately he got caught in the political football between Modi, the rising star of the BJP, and Modi’s political opponents. Abandonment is the flip side of glory, for encounter specialists and spies. Vanzara is out in the cold. He has used the moment of Narendra Modi’s anointment as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP to make one last desperate attempt to save his skin. His letter has created a temporary political flutter, but it isn’t going to get him out of jail. Nor is it going to send Narendra Modi into oblivion.