CBI relied on Vanzara in Haren probe

Leena Misra / TNN / May 26, 2007, 01:01 IST

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For some strange reason, the CBI, then under the BJP led NDA regime, carried on with Vanzara's line of investigation.

AHMEDABAD: When former minister of state for home, Haren Pandya, was killed on March 26, 2003, the police officer who held charge of the case, till the CBI took over, was DG Vanzara, the IPS officer now arrested in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.
For some strange reason, the CBI, then under the BJP led NDA regime, carried on with Vanzara's line of investigation and called it an "ISI conspired killing" executed by Dawood's men to avenge the killing of Muslims in the post-Godhra riots of 2002.
On Friday, the Pandya murder case came close to a verdict, till the Pota court put it off to June 18. But now, with Vanzara's credibility under a scanner, one wonders how much the case could depend on the evidence collected by an officer now infamous for fabricating evidence.
Soon after the Pandya killing,Vanzara accompanied the body to the post mortem room and supervised the reports, which are now being questioned.

As deputy commissioner in the crime branch, Vanzara ran a spate of arrests of young Muslims from a particular sect, from Kalupur area of Ahmedabad and booked them under a case famously called the 'ISI conspiracy case', a convenient cover to explain Vanzara's meddling in the case when the CBI had already taken over.
Questions are being raised now on why the look-out notice for Mufti Sufiyan Patangia, the said mastermind behind the Pandya murder, came 12 days after the killing, giving him enough time to flee.

In fact, CBI investigators admit that by the time the agency took over, vital clues were lost.The first information of Pandya's murder came at least three hours after the incident.
"This gave enough time to the killers and witnesses to disappear,"says an officer. By 2005, when the UPA regime came in, the BJP government in Gujarat was perhaps in no mood to help the CBI and the cracks in the case showed.
The same year, Patangia's wife and two children, who were supposed to have been "under observation"by Vanzara's men, fled the country, for which no explanation was sought. Pandya's widow, Jagruti, strongly believes Vanzara was involved in this escape.

About the Author

Leena Misra

Leena Misra is senior assistant editor at The Times of India, Ahmedabad. She has written on politics, crime, communal riots of 2002, people, city issues and a lot more. Loves all kinds of music, reading non-fiction and travelling.

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