DG Vanzara acquitted from Sohrabuddin fake encounter case

Mumbai: A special CBI court today acquitted former IPS officer DG Vanzara and Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh MN in the case of alleged fake encounters of notorious criminal Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati.

The acquittal of Vanzara gave a jolt to CBI, considering that he was termed as the main conspirator in the fake encounter case. Dinesh, on the other hand, had led the police team responsible for eliminating Sheikh. Vanzara was arrested on April 24, 2007, along with two other IPS officers Rajkumar Pandian and Dinesh, in connection with the alleged staged encounter of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh. The case was handed over to CBI. Vanzara and Dinesh had spent almost seven years in the Sabarmati Central Jail at Ahmedabad before being released on bail. While Vanzara retired in June 2014, Dinesh was promoted the same year he was let out.

Their discharge comes two and half years after BJP chief Amit Shah was granted similar relief in the case in 2014. Following a Supreme Court order, their trial was moved to a court in Mumbai. Sheikh was travelling on a Hyderabad-Sangli bus with his wife Kausar Bi and Prajapati when they were allegedly abducted by a Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad in November 2005, claiming that Sheikh had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Sheikh and Kausar were killed in a 'fake encounter' near Gandhinagar. Prajapati, the sole witness to their abduction, was also killed a year later. Gujarat police had claimed that he was shot down while trying to flee at Chapri village in Banaskantha district in December 2006. (UNI)