A local court today remanded suspended IPS officer D G Vanzara in CBI custody till June 10 in the Ishrat Jahan encounter killing case.
Magistrate S H Khutwad granted CBI custody of Vanzara till June 10 though the investigating officer Deputy Superintendent of Police G Kalaimani had asked for 14 days' remand.
Vanzara was arrested by CBI yesterday following his transfer to Sabarmati Central jail here from Mumbai. He was in Mumbai jail as an accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter killing case of 2005. He is also an accused in the Tulsi Prajapati encounter killing case.
CBI lawyer T K Srivastava argued the agency needed to question him to find out the role of the intelligence agency which had provided inputs on the basis of which Gujarat police had claimed to have acted at the time.
"CBI also wants his custody for the recovery of weapons used during the encounter," Srivastava said.
Mumbra-based Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai and alleged Pakistani nationals Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were killed in an encounter on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004.
Gujarat police claimed they were part of a conspiracy to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Following Ishrat's mother's petition, the Gujarat High Court constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) which concluded that the encounter was fake.
