Ahmedabad: Retired Gujarat IPS officer DG Vanzara, who is a key accused in the Ishrat Jahan and Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter cases, arrived here today after court modified his bail condition last week.
A special CBI court last week allowed him to return home to Gujarat. The court modified his bail condition that had banned Vanzara from entering Gujarat.
Vanzara was greeted by the thronging crowd in a grand reception with several garlands around his neck and chants of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.
"I was in Sabarmati jail and six years in Maharashtra and at that time there were conditions on me. Now after nine years, I am coming to Gujarat from Maharashtra and I am happy that so many people have come to receive me. This programme is just a glimpse of my reception," Vanzara said.
He was arrested on April 24, 2007 by CID (Crime) in connection with the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi in 2004. Vanzara was granted bail by a special court in Gujarat but the Bombay High Court had confined to Mumbai. Last month, the HC lifted this condition and allowed him to leave Mumbai.
Vanzara was Deputy Commissioner of Police of the crime branch, when Ishrat Jahan, her boyfriend Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two Pakistani nationals Amjadali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed allegedly in a shootout with the Gujarat Police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on 15 June 2004.
He was also made accused by the CBI in alleged encounter cases of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsi Prajapati, which took place when he was heading the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
