August 22, 2026 05:43 am (IST)
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Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case: DG Vanzara gets bail
Ahmedabad, Sept 11 (IBNS): Former Gujarat IPS officer DG Vanzara, accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases, was on Thursday granted bail by the Bombay High Court after being in jail for seven years.
Vanzara was arrested by CBI following his transfer to Sabarmati Central jail in Ahmedabad from Mumbai. He was in Mumbai jail as accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter killing case of 2005.
The cop was also accused in the Tulsi Prajapati encounter killing case.
He also involved in the killing of 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan.
Vanzara has been in jail since 2007 on charges of having conducted a series of extra-judicial killings while heading the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS).
Vanzara had earlier said in a letter that officers like him were made to suffer in jail even after being "loyal" to the government and blamed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for not helping these cops.
In a 10-page letter written on Sept 1 last year from prison, Vanzara, who was suspended from service, said he was resigning from the police force.
"I along with my officers stood beside the state government like a bulwark whenever it faced existential crisis in the past. It was expected of the government to reciprocate and stand firmly with us with a similar vigour and determination which to my utter shock and surprise did not happen," he said in his letter.
The letter was sent to Home Ministry in Gujarat and the CBI.
The letter came when the Congress on Tuesday demanded resignation of Narendra Modi after the publication of the footage of a sting operation in a CD by a freelance journalist who purportedly captured senior BJP leaders discussing ways to shield former Gujarat home minister and Modi's closest aide Amit Shah in the Tulsiram Prajapati encounter case.
Vanzara said officers like him are made to suffer in jails despite the fact that they had been "loyal soldiers of this government who fought incessant war against Pakistan-inspired terrorism."
He alleged that the Gujarat government and former Home Minister Amit Shah were aware of the actions of senior police officers like him who are accused of fake encounters.
The encounters were carried alleging that they were terrorists determined to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others on behalf of Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, Vanzara said.
"I am sorry to state that instead of providing an innovative and benevolent leadership for keeping the police force of the state intact, efficient and fighting machine, Sri Amitbhai Shah introduced a much despised British policy of divide and rule coupled with equally dirty policy of use the officers and throw them by deliberately spreading disinformation about them, where he succeeded in 'creating the crisis' of confidence among senior officers on one hand and the government on the other," he said.
Taking a dig at Modi, he said, "I have been silent as I adore Modi like a god, but my god could not rise to the occasion under evil influence of Amit Shah."
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