Gandhinagar

The BJP government in Gujarat today hailed the special CBI court’s grant of bail to the IPS officers P P Pandey and D G Vanzara in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

“As far as Ishrat Jahan encounter case is concerned, I have faith that the court will act as per the law and do justice to the Gujarat-cadre police officers who were implicated in the encounter case in the past,” state government spokesperson and health minister Nitin Patel said, adding, he welcomed today’s ruling.

Congress, however, denied that the IPS officers had been implicated. The party’s state unit chief Arjun Modhwadia said these policemen had been arrested by the state police itself.

“They were arrested and subsequently FIR was filed by the state CID. CBI took over the probe in various encounter cases only after the Supreme Court or High Court directions. The Gujarat government had stated on oath before the Supreme Court in Sohrabuddin case that the Gujarat police executed the fake encounter,” said Modhwadia.

“The state government has even given compensation to family members of Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi, who were killed in a fake encounter,” Modhwadia said, adding, the state government had shown indifference to police officers’ fate earlier.

Vanzara himself had alleged that the state government, led by Narendra Modi then, had failed to protect them, he said.

As Vanzara said in his letter, it was “conscious policy” of the Gujarat government to adopt zero-tolerance towards terrorism, and the cops eliminated some persons branding them as terrorists. Gujarat government should explain this, added Modhwadia.

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