Vanzara drags Verma in case

Jailed Gujarat IPS officer D G Vanzara, an accused in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case, told a special CBI court in Ahmedabad Friday that he executed the encounter on orders given by his superior on the basis of inputs received from the Intelligence Bureau (IB). He made the submission through his lawyer during the hearing on his bail plea. Besides, Vanzara also dragged Gujarat IPS officer Satish Verma’s name in the case, stating that “Verma wanted certain names of politicians” from him and since he refused to do so, he was still in jail. “Those who cooperated are out on bail,” Vanzara’s lawyer V D Gajjar told the court.

The hearing on Vanzara’s bail application started afresh before the newly appointed judge K R Upahyaya in the CBI special court Friday. Gajjar was accompanied by Vanzara’s elder brother and retired IAS officer K G Vanzara, dressed as advocate. The elder Vanzara took notes during the arguments. Later, he told this newspaper that he was attending the case as a “brother advocate” of the accused and not as “advocate on record”.

Verma had assisted CBI investigation that chargesheeted seven accused, including Vanzara, additional director general of police (ADGP) P P Pandey, IPS officer G L Singhal among others for killing Ishrat Jahan, her friend Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two Pakistani nationals — Amjadali Raja and Zeeshan Johar — in a stage-managed encounter in 2004 in Ahmedabad.

Gajjar specifically told the court that Verma wanted his client to reveal two names who were from the ruling political party which was refused.  He told the CBI court that the IB, in an affidavit before the Supreme Court in August, had clearly mentioned that the four persons killed in the encounter were terror suspects and the claim was supported by a statement of David Headley, a 26/11 plotter. According to the CBI chargesheet, the inputs about the terror suspects coming to Gujarat were given to then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner K R Kaushik. The inputs were forwarded to Vanzara, then a DIG, through his superior Kaushik, he said.