Has DG Vanzara spilled any beans on Amit Shah?

Suspended IPS officer in jail DG Vanzara is now the veritable smoking gun. CBI on Friday questioned him for pointing fingers at Amit Shah, former minister of state for home in his elaborate ‘resignation letter’.

What he revealed to the interrogators was not immediately known, but reliable sources confirm unraveling the larger conspiracy and political links in the Ishrat encounter is priority for CBI.

In his letter, Vanzara had accused the former minister of ditching police officers, who followed the state government’s “conscious policy”.

 The CBI sleuths grilled him from around 11 am to 3:30 pm at the Sabarmati jail. Sources in the investigating agency said he was grilled primarily to fish out his political connection and that of Shah in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. So far, Shah;s name has not surfaced directly in this case. But the CBI is struggling to establish the political connection in the Ishrat encounter case.

Sources said Vanzara was grilled at Sardar Kholi by chief investigating officer of the Ishrat fake encounter case, G Kalaimani, and superintendent of police Sandeep Tamgadge. The CBI questioned him about the “tactics” that Vanzara had accused Shah of employing when he was the minister of state for home, they added.

Sources further said that Vanzara was questioned primarily with reference to the contents of the letter where he had accused Shah of misguiding the police. A source in the CBI said the sleuths were not able to get the details of the case.

Vanzara, an officer of the rank of deputy inspector general of police, shot off his letter of resignation on September 1. There, he had expressed bitterness over the way the Narendra Modi government had failed to stand by him and other officers, who had implemented the government’s “conscious policy” of “eliminating terrorism”.

“This government, through the dirty tactics of Amitbhai Shah, is unfortunately trying for its own self to swim and prosper in all directions while ditching the police officers so as to sink and allow them to die an unnatural death by drowning,” said Vanzara, an IPS officer of the 1987 batch. “By adopting such a suicidal path, this government, I am sure, is doing nothing other than hastening and facilitating its own death by drowning,” he added.

Shah, who is currently camping in Bihar for Modi’s rallies, is one of the closes aides of the CM. He was arrested on July 25, 2010, in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and granted bail on October 29 that year.

Vanzara’s letter accuses Shah of betraying him and 32 other officers who are now in jail in connection with various encounter cases in Gujarat that the CBI is probing. Vanzara says in the letter that he once adored Modi as his God, who failed to rise to the occasion under the “evil” influence of Shah. Shah is Vanzara’s co-accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases.