D.G. Vanzara. File photoMumbai: The special CBI court here on Tuesday discharged former IPS officer from Gujarat D.G. Vanzara and Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh M.N. in the case of alleged fake encounters of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati.
Special CBI judge Sunilkumar J Sharma discharged Vanzara and Dinesh.
Vanzara, a DIG-rank officer, was arrested on April 24, 2007 in connection with the alleged fake encounter of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, whom the Gujarat Police claimed had links with Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba.
The Bombay High Court had granted bail to Vanzara in September 2014.
Reacting to the court's order, Vanzara said, "Justice has finally been done."
Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad from Hyderabad on their way to Sangli in Maharashtra.
Sheikh was killed in an alleged fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005, after which his wife disappeared and was believed to have been done to death.
Prajapati, an aide of the gangster and an eyewitness to the encounter, was allegedly killed by the police at Chapri village in Gujarat's Banaskantha district in December 2006.
The Sohrabuddin killing case was transferred to Mumbai in September 2012 on the request of CBI for a fair trial.
In 2013, the Supreme Court had clubbed the alleged fake encounter case of Prajapati with that of Sheikh.
Next Jahan case: Vanzara
Expressing gratitude towards the judiciary for discharging him, Vanzara also said that he would also get "justice" in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.
"I have been saying since the beginning that all these encounters were genuine. They were not fake. Now, when I am finally discharged by the court, it is now established that I was framed in false cases. This judgement vindicated my stand about encounters," Vanzara told PTI.
He, however, refused to put the blame on the erstwhile central government or on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
"Whatever happened in the past is now past. I do not want to say anything about it. I just want to say thanks to the judiciary, which had always been fair to me. Though justice is delayed, it is not denied," Vanzara, who spent nearly eight years behind the bars before being released on bail in 2015, said.
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