Ahmedabad: D G Vanzara, an accused in the fake encounter cases of Ishrat Jahan and Soharabuddin Sheikh walked out of the Sabarmati Central Jail today. The controversial ex-IPS officer spent almost seven and half years in prison.

Vanzara while talking to reporters said, "Surely, Acche Din (Good days) have returned for me and other Gujarat police officers." The former Gujarat top cop alleged that the state police was targeted for "extra legal political reasons"."Police of every state in the country fought against terrorism. But Gujarat Police was targeted by the previous political regime not for a day but for last eight years,” He further added. 

A local court had granted him bail in the Ishrat Jahan case on February 3, while he had earlier got bail from a Mumbai court in the Soharabuddin Sheikh and Tulsi Prajapati case, which were clubbed by the Supreme Court.

Vanzara will have to leave Gujarat, as the court while granting him conditional bail, had asked him not to enter the state. He was arrested on April 24, 2007 by CID crime in connection with the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, and since then he was behind bars.

Vanzara was Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in the city crime branch, when Mumbra-based college girl Ishrat Jahan, 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.