Vanzara & Co ran extortion racket

AHMEDABAD: The latest revelation to emerge from Gujarat’s fake-encounter case suggests that DG Vanzara, the state’s former ATS and crime branch chief, extorted money from criminals in exchange for sparing their lives.

The claim was made by family members of some of the criminals arrested by Vanzara, who is in detention for killing Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter and murdering his wife Kausar Bi.

Sources in the families said Vanzara and his associates would, for a consideration, release criminals accused even of serious crimes. The sources said even men accused of murder have been let off after paying the right price to Vanzara’s syndicate. Others who were targeted by Vanzara apparently survived without resorting to bribery because they moved court.

The sources said the modus operandi employed by Vanzara to kill Sohrabuddin was more or less the general pattern of his extortion enterprise. Arrested criminals were brought to a farmhouse (generally Arham) and held there without their arrest being entered in records. They were released when they paid up. “Some were killed even though they paid money,” a source said.

Sources said Vanzara was supported by Rajkumar Pandiyan, KM Vaghela, GL Singhal and other policemen in running the extortion business.