New Delhi: Opposition parties on Monday demanded a fresh inquiry into former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya’s murder in light of recent testimony of a key prosecution witness in the controversial Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. Azam Khan, on November 3, testified at a Mumbai trial court that Sohrabuddin had told him that that the former Gujarat IPS officer D.G. Vanzara had ordered the killing of Pandya. He also said that CBI official N.S. Raju had refused to put his statement on record in 2010, when he first narrated his testimony. Vanzara was incidentally acquitted in the fake encounter case in 2017. However, the Gujarat high court, while pronouncing the verdict had been particularly scathing in its indictment of the CBI officials who conducted the probe. The court had called the investigations led by a team of Y.C. Modi, the current director of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), as “botched up and blinkered”. As the matter is still pending at the Supreme Court, the connection Khan made between Pandya’s murder and Vanzara directly puts the then BJP state government in the dock. It is well-known that Vanzara, during his tenure, has been one of the most preferred police officers by the then chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, and his minister, Amit Shah.Also read: Mystery over Haren Pandya Killing Deepens After Witness Says Top Gujarat Cop Gave OrderPointing out Khan’s testimony, Congress leader Tom Vadakkan said that the investigation in Pandya murder case remains inconclusive even now and that the “guilty is still at large”. He alleged that since Khan’s testimony indicates that the Pandya was killed by Sohrabuddin and his associates at the instance of Modi-Shah duo’s favourite police official, the matter has become too serious to ignore as further investigation can put higher-ups in the then government under the scanner. Commenting on Sohrabuddin’s alleged fake encounter, Vadakkan said, “The question is: who ordered these murders? And why? A fake encounter for no rhyme or reason and all sorts of theories were put out, planted in the newspapers. Everywhere the reports said that ‘Sohrabuddin Sheikh was guilty’, in the sense that he had links with terrorists, links with international agencies and what have you. But the reality is, he knew too much.” Vadakkan also questioned the CBI for not conducting a fresh probe despite the high court’s severely critical comments. The CBI, instead, went on to appeal at the Supreme Court against the high court’s judgement. “It’s not just a coincidence, anybody who had any evidence to establish was liquidated and such operations went on,” the Congress leader said, adding that the fresh evidence should now be “treated with due respect” by the SC. He demanded that the apex court should now order a probe under its monitoring as multiple attempts to bury the evidence in the case have already been done. Also read: The Many Questions Still Unanswered 15 Years After Haren Pandya’s KillingWe also request to the home minister to give protection to these witnesses who have made these statement, because we should not find them too in the obituary column suddenly,” Vadakkan said, adding that even in the Judge B.H. Loya’s case, there have been similar attempts to bury evidence. Other Congress leaders like Sanjay Nirupam, Dinesh Gundu Rao, and Arjun Modhwadia also took turns to turn the heat on the Modi government.Similarly, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury also asked who are these higher-ups who Khan mentions in his testimony. “upar se yeh kaam diya tha (the work was given from above).” Who is this “upar” in Gujarat at that time, they should be brought to justice? #FakeEncounter pic.twitter.com/DHwwhjJZVd— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) November 4, 2018Swaraj Abhiyan leader and eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan also tweeted to say, “This is huge!. Witness is Sohrabuddin fake encounter case tells court that Sohrabuddin was the given the contract to kill Modi’s minister Haren Pandya (who deposed against Modi on Gujarat carnage) by Shah’s hitman Vanzara! This confirms widespread public suspicion.”This is huge! Witness in Sohrabuddin fake encounter case tells court that Sohrabuddin was given the contract to kill Modi’s Minister Haren Pandya (who deposed against Modi on Guj Carnage) by Shah’s Hitman Vanzara! This confirms widespread public suspicion! https://t.co/jq0Q50nBAW— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) November 4, 2018Gujarat’s MLA and emerging youth leader Jignesh Mevani too took this opportunity to launch an attack on the Modi-Shah duo. Appalled with the latest devlop in Haren Pandya’s murder case.15 yr have passed and still the perpetrators are roaming free. @narendramodi n @AmitShah have a lot to answer.Ex-IPS officer gave contract to kill Haren Pandya, says witness https://t.co/8T4UxWxXu5 via @IndianExpress— Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) November 4, 2018The Rashtriya Janata Dal parliamentarian Manoj Kumar Jha tweeted a link of Vanzara’s letter in which he as an undertrial prisoner in the Sohrabuddin encounter case had said that the killings the police undertook during the phase had the blessings of the then BJP-led state government. He had said regarding the alleged fake encounters that as field officers, they were only implementing “the conscious policy of this government which was inspiring, guiding and monitoring our actions from very close quarters”.Jha said, “…just in case we have chosen to forget… (the letter) is telling us the chilling side of ‘Gujarat Model of Development’…”Sanjay Singh of Aam Aadmi Party said although Khan’s deposition in court clarifies that Vanzara was behind the then state home minister’s killing, the bigger question to ask is who were those who ordered Vanzara to kill Pandya.डी जी बंजारा के कहने पर गुजरात के पूर्व गृह मंत्री हरेन पण्ड्या की हत्या की गई थी, बड़ा सवाल ये है कि बंजारा को हत्या कराने का निर्देश किसने दिया? बंजारा का भगवान कौन है? https://t.co/S9K6PGzm2u— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) November 5, 2018
