DG Vanzara described his release as 'acche din' for him
DG Vanzara, the controversial former Gujarat police officer charged with multiple cases of fake encounters, says his release from jail is not a political quid pro quo.
In an exclusive interview to NDTV, recorded moments after he was released on bail from Ahmedabad's Sabarmati prison today, DG Vanzara described his release as 'acche din' for him and the other Gujarat cops charged in fake encounters cases.
He said his bail is "exclusively the job of the judiciary".
In 2013, Mr Vanzara had written a hard-hitting letter from prison, accusing the Gujarat government of letting down its police officers charged in these cases. Today, he claimed, "that letter was written in a different context; the context was previously different and now it is different."
To qualify he would only say, "Everybody knows about it (the context of the letter)", adding, "So the context has changed."
In that letter, he had strong words for Amit Shah, who was Gujarat Home Minister when Mr Vanzara was arrested eight years ago and is now the BJP chief. Mr Shah, he alleged, "ditched Gujarat's police officers."
Today he didn't seem to disown those allegations, saying "the letter is very much there; it's in black and white."
In the letter, he had also said that the Gujarat government knew of all his actions and those of his officers. This too, he said today, still stands.
"That is my legal stand. You kindly look at the provisions of the Constitution. You look at the way in which the entire democracy is operating. So whatever I have stated in my letter, that specific thing which you are asking about that was a legal stand and the law is law."
When asked about his allegation that the encounters benefited Mr Modi's image of a man who fights terror, he said "you should ask the Gujarat government and you should ask honourable PM, if they benefited or not."
Though he is out on bail, Mr Vanzara is far from being in the clear. Trial is yet to begin in the Ishrat Jahan case and in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case - he has been charged with multiple counts of murder, conspiracy, kidnapping and suppressing evidence.
The CBI has backed its charges with statements from DG Vanzara's fellow police officials. But he said, 'the encounters were not fake, the encounters were genuine. It was investigation and registration of the offences which were fake and they were carried out."
He also said he was framed "for extra legal political reasons".
When asked whether he would join politics, specifically the BJP, he said "No, I am a soldier of this country."