Suspended top cop D G Vanzara’s letter is making headlines across India for the impact it could have on Narendra Modi and his close aide Amit Shah in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In the letter, Vanzara accused the government and then home minister Amit Shah of being complicit in the encounters conducted.
In his letter he 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.” This line of reasoning may well cast a shadow over the Gujarat government, but according to former IPS officer and India Against Corruption (IAC) member Kiran Bedi, it is more than anything else, a blot on all India’s public officers.
In a series of tweets, Bedi said that Vanzara’s excuse that he was ‘following orders’ amounted to nothing, since the first duty of an IPS officer was to the law and not to any individual. “Even if served written orders for unlawful acts, no public servant can be compelled to carry them out! Be it corruption or encounters,” she added.
