CBI unfairly spared Kaushik, IB officer: Vanzara

AHMEDABAD: Retired IPS officer D G Vanzara, who is an accused in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, on Friday asked why the CBI had spared the then police commissioner K R Kaushik and made him a witness instead of an accused in the case.
During arguments in court over Vanzara’s application for regular bail, the retired police officer’s lawyer V Gajjar also alleged discrimination against Gujarat policemen for whom prior sanction for filing of chargesheet was deemed not required under Section 197 of CrPC.But the CBI had given this as the ground for not arresting Intelligence Bureau (IB) sleuths, including Rajinder Kumar, who were also allegedly involved in the incident, the lawyer said.
Gajjar cited the affidavit filed by the central IB in the Supreme Court in response to the petition filed by the co-accused N K Amin. He further said that the IB input was given to then Ahmedabad police commissioner Kaushik by IB officer Rajinder Kumar. Kaushik had passed on the input to crime branch officials and this had led to the encounter, said Gajjar.
The lawyer further claimed that Kaushik was selectively spared by the CBI while his subordinate officers were arrested. Kaushik was made a witness without even filing of a discharge report. This is against the law, Gajjar said.
Demanding arraignment of such cops, Gajjar argued that statements of such cops are meaningless because they are not really ‘witnesses’. This practically results in complete lack of evidence against Vanzara; hence his arrest is ‘illegal detention’, said the lawyer.
Vanzara’s lawyer also criticized IPS officer Satish Verma who had conducted an inquiry into the encounter on the orders of the Gujarat high court. Verma had later also assisted the CBI in the probe. Gajjar submitted that Verma had prevailed over the investigation and spared all those officials who had given statements to his liking. Vanzara had refused to sing to his tunes and was therefore, arrested, claimed Gajjar.
Further hearing over the bail petition has been kept for December 5.
Ishrat Jahan and three others – Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai; Amjad Ali Rana; and Jishan Zohar – were killed on June 15, 2004 by crime branch personnel on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city. They were dubbed as Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives out on a mission to kill then chief minister Narendra Modi. However, investigation had later revealed that they were already in police custody before they were killed.