The motive behind the encounter killings of Ganesh Khunte and Mahendra Jadav has once again cast a shadow on DIG D G Vanjhara. More than four years after the two were shot by the police on charges of being Lashkar-e-Toiba men on a mission to kill State Law Minister Ashok Bhatt and MLA Bharat Barot, a designated POTA court of Ahmedabad has said the prosecution has not been able to prove the said conspiracy.

Maharashtra-based Khunte and Jadav were killed by the city police’s Crime Branch near Panchkuva cloth market on June 23, 2003.

According to the complaint filed by the then police Inspector (crime) I A Saiyad, the then JCP (crime) P P Pandey had on June 22 that year received information about the duo reaching Ahmedabad to strike terror during the Rath Yatra. Pandey was summoned by the then DCP (crime), D G Vanjhara, who passed on information to his team. Vanjhara claimed that Khunte and Jadav opened fire on the police team and were shot dead in retaliation.

A subsequent investigation by the DCB later culminated into the arrest of eight persons. They were booked on the charges of criminal conspiracy, waging war against the nation and various other sections of the IPC, POTA and the Bombay Police Act.

According to defence counsel I M Munshi, while one accused was absolved of the charges, seven others were faced the trial till last Friday, when the court pronounced the verdict. The Additional Special POTA Judge acquitted four of them for lack of evidence, while sentencing the other three to five years jail term for possessing arms in a notified area. Munshi said: “I will now challenge the authenticity of the Khunte-Jadav encounter in the High Court.”