Former Gujarat IPS officer D.G. Vanzara on Monday said that the statement of Azam Khan, a key witness in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter trial, has no legal validity.
Azam Khan, an associate of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati, who were killed in alleged fake encounters, had told a trial court in Mumbai that Vanzara had given him a contract to kill senior BJP leader Haren Pandya.
Pandya, who had deposed before an independent commission probing the post-Godhra riots, was killed in broad daylight near Law Garden, Ahmedabad on March 26, 2003.
Khan's claims are based on hearsay evidence and hearsay evidence is not accepted in the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act, Vanzara said while speaking to THE WEEK.
He added that there is no question of Khan's deposition before the trial court, handling the Sohrabuddin case, landing him in a trouble. Vanzara also said that he was discharged in the Sohrabuddin case.
According to the former top cop, Khan is a criminal arrested in several cases in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. “He is not reliable,” Vanzara claimed. “What Khan is saying is based on what Sohrabuddin and Prajapati told him,” he added.
Vanzara further said that Khan had never said this before the CBI or the magistrate when his statements were recorded. “The magistrate would not have prevented him, correct?,” asked Vanzara.
Vanzara, who was considered close to Amit Shah, now the BJP's national president, said that Pandya's murder investigation was done by the CBI, accused were arrested after the motive was found and the trial was completed. Pandya's murder and the encounters were separate things, he remarked, adding that this is a democracy and “people talk in so many voices”.
“Since the matter is sub judice, it is better to have a restrained reaction from my side,” he concluded.