Facing trial in multiple cases of fake encounters, suspended Gujarat Police official DG Vanzara today tendered his resignation in which he said that he had considered Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as his ”God”, but had been let down by him. In a ten page long letter that was accessed by INN, the former IPS official was quoted as saying,”I have been maintaining graceful silence for such a long period because of my supreme faith and respect for Narendra Modi whom I adore like God. But I am sorry to state that my God could not rise to the occasion under the evil influence of Shri Amitbhai Shah who usurped his eyes and ears…”
The former official claimed that Shah was running the government by proxy. He also appealed to Modi that in “the hurry of marching towards Delhi” he should not forget to the police officials who had allowed him to earn the impression of being tough on crime. Vanzara blamed Modi for not helping him or other officers facing prosecution in cases of staged extra-judicial killings.
Vanzara has also accused the government and the then home minister Amit Shah of being complicit in the encounters conducted. In his letter he also said, “I have a moral justification to expose real culprits behind the encounter cases. Officers, Crime Branch officers, Anti-Terrorism Squad and Border Range during 2002-2007 simply acted and performed their duties in compliance of the conscious policy of this government.” He added, “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.” Vanzara also accused the state government of keeping officers in jail to save itself. The suspended police official said that the state government had been ‘clandestinely’ making efforts to keep all police officials accused in similar cases in jail in order to ‘save its own skin’ and gain ‘political benefits’. Vanzara has also squarely laid the blame for his arrest on the then Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also an accused in cases like the Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsi Prajapati murder cases.
The suspended police official said that Shah had mishandled the working in the police department and promoted infighting among police officials. “Under the circumstances of such a suspicion lurking from all the directions, MOS, Home lost all credibility and confidence vis-a-vis police officials and vice versa which ignited the ‘yadavasthali of fratricidal police war’ in Gujarat, which was later exploited by the CBI opening the floodgates of politico-legal problems for this government on one hand and involving ‘patriotic police officers’ in a number of encounter cases on the other,” Vanzara said. He also protested the lack of proper legal aid being provided to him and other officials.
“When Amit Shah was arrested, the best of legal aid was given to him in the name of Ram Jethmalani who fought Amit Shah from the CBI court to Supreme Court. The state government never provided any legal support, leave apart lip service to us or our family,” Vanzara was quoted as saying in the letter by INN. The police official claimed that the Guajrat government had adopted a zero tolerance policy towards terror activities that were fanned by the communal riots of 2002 and had prevented Gujarat from “becoming another Kashmir”. He also said that while he earlier got calls from ‘bigwigs’ in Gandhinagar, they had ignored him after his arrest and hadn’t offered any help to any of the arrested police officials.
Vanzara was arrested by the CBI following his transfer to Sabarmati Central jail in Ahmedabad from Mumbai. He was in Mumbai jail as an accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter killing case of 2005. He is also accused in the Tulsi Prajapati encounter killing case in which the key witness in the Shaikh case was also killed.
