Ishrat Jahan encounter case: Action taken by Gujarat cops at that time was genuine, says DJ Vanzara

New Delhi: At a time when the main opposition party Congress is cornered over the alleged encounter of Lashkar-e-Toiba operative Ishrat Jahan, retired IPS officer DG Vanzara on Wednesday justified the action taken by the Gujarat police in 2004.

Action taken by Gujarat Police at that time was genuine, DJ Vanzara told ANI.

Later as part of political conspiracy this genuine action was termed false, Vanzara added further.

Vanzara was on Tuesday permitted to enter the state of Gujarat following an order from the Bombay High Court, which modifed the conditions of his bail.

Vanzara, who is also accused in the alleged staged encounter of Sohrabbudin Shaikh while he was in the Gujarat state anti-terror squad, was allowed bail by the high court in this case in September 2014.

At the time the court had given bail on the condition that he stay in Mumbai, report to the sessions court three times a week, surrender his passport and make no attempt to contact witnesses connected with the pending cases.

Last year Vanzara then moved the high court seeking to amend the condition prohibiting him from entering Gujarat on the ground that he had retired from service.

Ishrat, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter with Gujarat Police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

The Crime Branch had then said that those killed in the encounters were LeT terrorists and had landed in Gujarat to kill the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.