CBI wanted to arrest Narendra Modi, Amit Shah in Ishrat Jahan case: DG Vanzara

Former Gujarat DIG of Police DG Vanzara on Tuesday told a special court that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wanted to arrest then state chief minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

Appearing for Vanzara, his lawyer VD Gajjar told special judge J K Pandya that the "intention of the investigating agency was to implicate" Modi and Shah in the case but “fortunately” it didn’t happen.

In 2014, the CBI gave a clean chit to Shah, now BJP president, citing no prosecutable evidence against him.

In June 2004, 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan, her friend Javed with two other persons were killed by a team of Vanzara in an encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Questions were raised on the encounter and the case was handed over to the CBI. In its probe, the central investigation agency concluded that the encounter was fake.

Arguing for Vanzara’s discharge from the case, Gajjar said that the charge sheet filed by the CBI against the former DIG was "concocted" and there were no prosecutable evidence against his client.

In the first charge sheet filed by the CBI in 2013, seven Gujarat police officers were named as accused, including IPS officers P P Pandey, Vanzara and G L Singhal. They faced charges of kidnapping, murder and criminal conspiracy.

Vanzara was last year discharged in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram alleged fake encounter cases along with Rajasthan IPS officer Dinesh M N.