Vanzara's letter has 'only political, no legal value', CBI chief Ranjit Sinha says

NEW DELHI: The CBI feels that jailed Gujarat DIG DG Vanzara's explosive resignation letter by itself does not constitute a basis for the agency to re-investigate the "fake" encounter cases for ascertaining afresh the complicity of bigwigs of the Gujarat government.

"It has only political value, no legal value. We have already filed chargesheets in our cases and we don't plan to charge anybody else unless we have strong evidence. We are obviously examining his letter but it doesn't seem to contain any relevant information specific to the encounters," CBI director Ranjit Sinha told TOI when asked whether the agency saw Vanzara's claims as possible pointers to the possible involvement of politicians in "fake encounter" cases.

In his resignation letter which has sent ripples through political circles, Vanzara claimed that the "encounters" he and other Gujarat police officers are being prosecuted for were part of the Narendra Modi government's "proactive policy of zero tolerance for terrorism which was adopted by the government at the highest level of its hierarchy".

When asked by TOI whether CBI planned to question Vanzara, Sinha said, "We may question him to see if we find any lead but its been eight years and he is suddenly saying something, which is not evidence in our case."

CBI sources said they were examining the jailed IPS officer's letter in the context of their investigations into Tulsiram Prajapati and Ishrat Jahan encounter cases, but said they had no plan to investigate Modi.

Vanzara has consistently rejected the CBI's charge that he and other Gujarat police officers staged encounters.