Seeking promotion, DG Vanzara shoots off another letter, targets Amit Shah again

Retired IPS officer DG Vanzara, who is out on bail in three encounter cases, has written a letter to the additional chief secretary (home) GR Aloria, alleging discrimination in recent promotions and reinstatements of IPS officers who were discharged or are out on bail, in the fake encounter cases.

4 min readAhmedabadMay 7, 2015 08:03 PM IST First published on: May 7, 2015 at 08:03 PM IST

Former Gujarat deputy inspector general of police DG Vanzara, accused in Ishrat Jahan and Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter cases.

Retired IPS officer DG Vanzara, who is out on bail in three encounter cases, has written a letter to the additional chief secretary (home) GR Aloria, alleging discrimination in recent promotions and reinstatements of IPS officers who were discharged or are out on bail, in the fake encounter cases. In the letter, he has also sought a promotion for himself and others who he thinks were discriminated.

Vanzara has alleged that the Gujarat government is adopting “a different yardstick of promotion by conveniently favouring those officers who suit it while rejecting those who do not suit it”. Vanzara, who is a key accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Tulsiram Prajapati and Ishrat Jahan encounter cases, calls this a “part of the on going political conspiracy against us.” The retired DIG criticised politicians saying they placed self-interest before that of the nation and treated policemen as “insects, mosquitoes and flies”.

Attacking BJP chief Amit Shah, Vanzara alleged that by promoting officers such as IPS officer Geetha Johri by superseding ADGP PP Pandey who is her senior, the govt is “deviating from the standard procedure to save the skin of all accused persons who are discharged from the case by the CBI court.” Vanzara went on to say that it was “Geetha Johri in association with PC Pande and Amitbhai Shah, who created sorry state of affairs for Gujarat police in general and accused police officers and men in particular.”

Vanzara had earlier written a damning letter from the Sabarmati Jail in 2013, condemning Shah. In that ten page letter Vanzara had mentioned, “I used to adore Modi like a god. But I am sorry to state that my God could not rise to the occasion under the evil influence of Amit Shah who usurped his eyes and ears and has been misguiding him.”

After almost eight years in jail, Vanzara got bail in February. Currently, he is staying in Bandra, Mumbai as a part of his bail conditions bars him from entering Gujarat.

Shah, Pande (ex DGP) and Johri were recently discharged from Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. Johri was promoted to DGP rank recently by the state government. Vanzara has claimed that he knows Anandiben Patel, Gujarat Chief Minister, “from a very close” and if she “exorcises her government and system from the evil influence of unlawful usurpers of her powers, she can definitely do the justice to us and save the situation from drifting into the wrong directions.”

When contacted, Aloria told this paper, “I am not aware of any such letter, but we do receive letters for promotion. Anyone can write anything, but it has to be dealt with in accordance with the law.”

Vanzara cites the case of co-accused IPS officer Dinesh MN of Rajasthan cadre who got double promotion after getting bail, to become Inspector General of Police (IGP) from the rank of Superintendent of Police and gives credit to the Vasundhara Raje government.

The letter says, “When nobody could dare to come in the way of Vasundhara Raje government in giving promotions to Rajasthan officers, who is coming in the way of Anandiben Patel government in giving similar promotions to Gujarat officers in the same case?”

In the letter Vanzara claims “the courts have done justice to us, Rajasthan government is also doing quick justice to our co-accused brother officers, there is no valid reason as to why the government of Gujarat should lag behind and deny justice to us. Earlier, UPA government sitting in the centre was blamed for all the problems of Gujarat police. At present, BJP government with an absolute majority is sitting in the centre with a very strong leader presiding over it.”