Gujarat govt rejects Vanzara's resignation

A day after suspended 1987-batch IPS officer D G Vanzara, accused in several fake encounter cases and currently under suspension and arrest, stunned the Narendra Modi administration with an explosive letter which includes his resignation, the Gujarat government has decided against forwarding it to the Centre for acceptance.

Citing all-India service rules, sources in the state's home department said the resignation could not be forwarded without the mandatory vigilance clearance. Also, the charge-sheeted officer has serious offences registered against him.

The Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules of 1965 clearly state that government servants are placed under suspension only in cases of grave delinquency. It is not correct to accept the resignation of a government servant under suspension.

According to the rule, “Where a government servant who is under suspension submits a resignation, the competent authority should examine, with reference to the merit of the disciplinary case pending against the government servant, whether it would be in the public interest to accept the resignation. Normally, as the government servants are placed under suspension only in cases of grave delinquency, it would not be correct to accept a resignation from a government servant under suspension. ”

In his 10-page letter dated September 1, Vanzara, considered close to Narendra Modi, had trained his guns at the chief minister and his aide Amit Shah, former Minister of State for Home and now BJP's national-level  general secretary, in-charge of Uttar Pradesh affairs.  He asserted that the officers who sincerely implemented a “conscious policy” of the government were being made to languish in jails after their utility was over.

Vanzara even said that by this logic, the entire government “should be in Taloja Central Prison at Navi Mumbai or in Sabarmati Central Prison at Ahmedabad”. Earlier, Superintendent of Police G L Singhal, who is among the seven policemen accused in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, had resigned from his post.