Suspended Gujarat Deputy Inspector General of Police D.G. Vanzara, allegedly involved in a chain of fake encounter cases and lodged in a Mumbai jail for nearly seven years, on Tuesday, resigned from the IPS, accusing the Narendra Modi government of framing police officials in encounter cases while protecting ruling party politicians close to the Chief Minister. In his 10-page resignation letter, Mr. Vanzara said the Gujarat government had ensured that he and the other accused police officers were kept in jail “so as to save its own skin from the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation)” and also to “reap very rich political dividends.” Spelling out what he meant by “political dividends,” Mr. Vanzara said the continuing incarceration of the cops helped the State government keep the “glow of encounter cases alive” in Gujarat. He urged the Chief Minister not to forget the debt he owed the jailed police officers “while he was in the hurry of marching towards Delhi.”
The principal target of Mr. Vanzara’s ire was BJP general secretary Amit Shah, whose “nauseating” actions, he said, “may take this government to the crematorial ground sooner or later.” An accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounters, Mr. Shah was released on bail some time ago and is currently overseeing the BJP’s political interests in Uttar Pradesh. Mr. Vanzara, who was arrested by the Gujarat Police in April 2007 in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s fake encounter, is also an accused in the encounter deaths of Tulsiram Prajapati, Ishrat Jahan and Sadique Jamal. Mr. Vanzara argued that if he and his fellow officers were deemed to be responsible for the fake encounters, then by that token “the policy makers” too needed to be arrested as the officers had only carried out the “conscious” policy of the government: “Gujarat CID/ Union CBI had arrested me and my officers in different encounter cases holding us responsible for carrying out alleged fake encounters. If that is true, then the CBI investigating officers of all the four encounter cases of Sohrabuddin, Tulsiram, Sadique Jamal and Ishrat Jahan have to arrest the policy formulators also as we, being field officers, have simply implemented the conscious policy of this government which was inspiring, guiding, and monitoring our actions from very close quarters.”
The suspended cop then added a punch line: “By this reasoning, I am of the firm opinion that the place of this government, instead of being in Gandhinagar should either be in Taloja Central Prison at Navi Mumbai or in Sabarmati Central Prison at Ahmedabad.” Mr. Vanzara claimed he had maintained his “graceful silence for such a long period” only because of his “supreme faith and highest respect” for Narendra Modi, whom he used to “adore like a God,” but which “God could not rise to the occasion under the evil influence of Shri Amitbhai Shah who usurped his eyes and ears and has been successfully misguiding him by converting goats into dogs and dogs into goats since last 12 years.”
