A special CBI Court in Mumbai, on August 1, discharged controversial former IPS officer D.G. Vanzara and Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh M.N. in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases.
The officers have been discharged for want of evidence. The case was heard in the court of Justice Sunil Kumar Sharma.
Sheikh was killed in alleged fake encounter near Ahmedabad on November 26, 2005. After a few days, his wife Kauserbi was allegedly killed and her remains burnt.
The police had claimed that Sheikh had links with the LeT.
Believed to have knowledge of Sheikh's fake encounter, Tulsiram Prajapati, Sheikh's aide, was killed on December 28, 2006.
Vanzara, who was a DIG rank officer, was arrested on April 24, 2007. In 2014, Bombay High Court had granted conditional bail to Vanzara.
Later on, when the High Court made relaxations and allowed him to enter Gujarat, Vanzara had received a hero's welcome at the Gandhinagar Town Hall.
Vanzara told THE WEEK that he was happy with the judgment and said that it had further strengthened his faith in Indian judiciary.
Thanking the almighty for the discharge, Vanzara said, “God is Great”.
The former IPS officer recalled that he had to spend eight years of his life in the jail and had to retire in the jail. He said that had he not gone behind the bars, he would have utilized the time for anti-terror measures. “Had I not been behind the bars, my work might have spread to other states of the country,” Vanzara said.
On his return, Vanzara had said that he would remain active in public life. Replying to a question on his role in the assembly elections, later this year, he said, “I will continue to work for the society. At the moment, I want to limit my reaction to the discharge. In what form I will work for the society, I will be able to say when the time comes.”
Earlier, the court had already given a clean chit to BJP national president Amit Shah. Shah was Gujarat's minister of state for home when the encounters happened.
