Ahmedabad

IPS officers P P Pandey and D G Vanzara, accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, today completed a course in Sanskrit-speaking at the Sabarmati central jail here.

“We trained around 250 prisoners of the Sabarmati central jail through our ten-day Sanskrit-speaking course. Vanzara and Pandey also participated in the course,” coordinator of the NGO Samskrita Bharti (which had organized the course) Sukumar Trivedi said.

“Today was the last day of the course. Vanzara gave a 30-minute speech in Sanskrit,” he said. “Pandey sahab also spoke in Sanskrit and said a person who can speak this language can never commit any crime, as Sanskrit connects hearts. Pandey sahab also said that it teaches us the spirit of universal brotherhood,” said Trivedi.

Pandey, who is behind the bars since August last year, has sought bail in the Ishrat case on the ground that CBI had not produced any substantial evidence against him.

Pandey was the joint commissioner of police (crime) in Ahmedabad, when Ishrat, a Mumbai-based student, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were gunned down by crime branch sleuths on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004. According to CBI, it was a staged encounter.

Vanzara has been named in Ishrat as well as Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsi Prajapati encounter cases. He is in jail since April 2007. He has, however, got bail in Sohrabuddin and Tulsi Prajapati encounter cases.

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