Vanzara seeks parity with senior for discharge

AHMEDABAD: Retired DIG and an accused in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan case, D G Vanzara on Friday sought benefit of parity with his senior P P Pandey in seeking a discharge from the case.
Pandey was discharged in this case in February, for want of evidence against him as well as for lack of government sanction from the government to criminally prosecute him in the case, in which four persons — Ishrat, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Jishan Zohar — were killed in an encounter with city police on June 15, 2004.Seven cops were charged by the CBI for murder, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and illegal detention in this case.
Vanzara’s advocate V D Gajjar submitted before special CBI judge K J Pandya that the Intelligence Bureau’s inputs were received by the then police commissioner K R Kaushik. The information and instructions were passed on to then joint police commissioner Pandey. He was the third officer in the chain of command and was following orders and accordingly instructed his subordinates do nakabandi in the city. He acted as part of his official duty.
The lawyer also submitted that while Ishrat and her companions were armed with AK-56 rifles and opened fire, the cops had little option but to resort to counter firing. He claimed Pillai was accused of counterfeiting currency and used to hold two passports. Ishrat was in knowledge of this.
The court has posted further proceeding on June 30, when it is likely to decide on the discharge of another accused, N K Amin, in this case.