File pic: Gujarat police officer DG Vanzara
Former Gujarat police officer DG Vanzara has been granted bail in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case of 2005. He will, however, remain in jail for charges in other cases, including the killing of college student Ishrat Jahan.
The controversial officer has been in a jail in Ahmedabad for seven years for cases that earned him the nickname of "encounter specialist". He retired in June. He was arrested in March 2007, when he was a Deputy Inspector General of Police, for the Sohrabuddin killing.
Sohrabuddin, a petty criminal, his wife Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati were traveling on a bus from Andhra Pradesh in 2005 when they were kidnapped by the Gujarat police. Sohrabuddin and his wife were killed a few days later. Tulsiram, the sole witness to their abduction, was shot dead a year later; the police claimed that he was trying to escape.
Later, he was also made an accused in the killing of Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old, and three men in 2004. All four were shot dead by officers who claimed that they were involved in a plot to kill Narendra Modi, who was Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time.
Some of Mr Vanzara's juniors were also granted bail recently.
Last year, he quit the force and shot off an acerbic letter in which he accused Mr Modi and his close aide Amit Shah, a former Home Minister of Gujarat, of making him and other police officers scapegoats for following their orders.
Mr Vanzara in his letter described Mr Modi as "god who did not rise to the occasion under the evil influence of Amit Shah."
His resignation was not accepted by the Gujarat government.