Encounter-accused cops learn spoken Sanskrit in jail

IPS officers PP Pandey and DG Vanzara, accused in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, on Thursday completed a course in Sanskrit-speaking at the Sabarmati central jail here.

“We trained around 250 prisoners of the Sabarmati central jail through our ten-day Sanskrit-speaking course. Vanzara and Pandey also participated in the course,” coordinator of the NGO Samskrita Bharti (which had organized the course) Sukumar Trivedi said. “Today (Thursday) was the last day of the course. Vanzara gave a 30-minute speech in Sanskrit,” he said. “Pandey sahab also spoke in Sanskrit and said a person who can speak this language can never commit any crime, as Sanskrit connects hearts. Pandey sahab also said that it teaches us the spirit of universal brotherhood,” said Trivedi.

Pandey, who is behind the bars since August last year, has sought bail in the Ishrat case on the ground that CBI had not produced any substantial evidence against him.

Pandey was the joint commissioner of police (crime) in Ahmedabad, when Ishrat, a Mumbai-based student, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were gunned down by crime branch sleuths on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004.