Suspended IPS officer GL Singhal seems to have succeeded where his former boss and suspended IPS officer DG Vanzara failed. While accused policemen in Ishrat case have managed to get bail, those indicted in the Sohrab case are still in jail.
Singhal, who resigned from police service, was the first IPS officer to be arrested in the Ishrat case followed by the four other officers. But all five were granted bail.
It is said that Singhal had struck a deal with CBI and managed to get bail for himself as well as his subordinates, including inspectors Bharat Patel and DH Goswami, who have admitted to their crime. Through them, the CBI got clinching proof to nail senior IPS officers PP Pandey, Vanzara, former Intelligence Bureau joint director Rajinder Kumar and even former junior home minister Amit Shah.
A section of the police hailed Singhal for bailing out his subordinates and blamed Vanzara for the long jail terms of his nearly two dozen subordinates.
Sources said till Singhal was arrested, CBI had no evidence or clue to the execution of Ishrat and three others. However, it was Singhal, who first dared to strike a deal with CBI for safe passage for himself and his team.
According to the charge sheet, it is evident that all confessions and revelations made by team Singhal were between March and June. Patel, Goswami, a few sub-inspectors and constables bluntly mentioned the roles played by their bosses in the fake encounter and also gave a graphic account of how the four were abducted and executed.
Those who spilled the beans did not utter a word during the inquiry conducted by then ACP Parikshita Rathod or even during their remand in CBI custody.
Then, they were taken to a different magistrate in Mumbai before whom they narrated the entire episode. In return, the CBI did not file the charge sheet within the stipulated 90 days of their arrest, thereby helping Singhal & Co get bail.
On the other hand, Vanzara was arrested with junior officers Rajkumar Pandiyan, Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh MN and three policemen. The CBI subsequently arrested other officers, too. But none of them has managed to get bail. They are in more trouble ever since the trail shifted to Mumbai. Almost two dozen cops are in a spot in the Sohrabuddin and Tulsi fake encounter cases.
Sources said Vanzara’s overconfidence landed his juniors in a legal tangle. Naturally, his team is divided.
“Vanzara is deeply concerned about his junior officers and they will all come clean in a court of law,” said Vanzara’s lawyer VD Gajjar. “Due to the concern for his officers, he never applied for bail and has wished to come out of jail only after securing the release of all his subordinates,” he asserted.
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