In view of the seriousness of allegations against you, it’s surprising to see your confidence to take the lead in Uttar Pradesh. From where do you get such confidence? Is it the case that you don’t take such grave criminal charges seriously?

As far as the charges against me are concerned, my party has never accepted it from the beginning. As far as I am concerned, accepting of any allegations is out of question.

I have passed through the process. It’s politically motivated. It’s a fraud and conspiracy. Let me tell you in detail. During my tenure as minister of state for home, the country saw some 1,500 encounter killings of criminals, while in Gujarat 17 people were killed in police encounters. Gujarat is one of the states which witnessed the minimum number of encounters.

Still all the encounters of Gujarat are being scrutinised while the rest are not being reopened. Non-Gujarat encounters are not touched. Except the encounter of Maoist leader Azad, none of the hundreds of encounters have been questioned anywhere in India. Even in the case of Azad, the Central Bureau of Investigation has closed the file.

It proves without doubt that encounter cases are politically motivated. It’s due to the connivance of the NGOs and the Congress party. They gave the investigation to the CBI. They didn’t do their job professionally, they did it politically. They did everything possible to trap me. Since young age I am in politics. I have, always, lived among the people of Gujarat. I know public sentiments. Every time I have fought elections, I have improved my victory margins. Even after the cases, I have fought elections. Even people have accepted my version. They have elected me after my jail term. They have rejected charges levelled against me.

When I was made general secretary and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh the decision proves that my party rejects the CBI’s investigation.

You had been giving these arguments when you fought the election last year. But, the letter by D G Vanzara (DIG of Gujarat police and one of the main accused in the encounter cases) clearly targets you.

In his entire letter he has not said that we asked him to go ahead. As we haven’t given any nod, so the question doesn’t arise to make any allegation against us. In the first place, he doesn’t think he has done anything wrong. He believes that whatever he has been doing on the job was service to the nation. All he says is that I haven’t taken care of the police officers who are in jail.

Do you accept his charge?

The letter and the investigation of it is a part of the legal proceedings so I won’t say anything.

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