Vanzara is lodged in the jail along with some other senior police officers for allegedly killing Sohrabuddin and then murdering his wife Kausar Bi to conceal evidence of the fake encounter.

According to sources in the jail, Vanzara has applied for two certificate courses — Certificate in Human Rights (CHR) and Certificate in Computer (CIC) — through Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) centre in the prison premises. He even took the examination for CHR in December last year.

The correspondence course is of six-month duration and results are due in three months. The course consists of topics like Human Rights, Society and Development, Human Rights & India, and Human Rights in Everyday Life.

Vanzara’s appearance in the examination of human rights has surprised noted lawyer and human rights activist Girish Patel. “This is the irony of our society. Human rights for whom? Those who have violated rights like never before are studying it and those whose human rights are violated are not able to study,” Patel said.

“I think his decision to study could have proved to be a challenge for his tutors, and he could have learnt the lessons on his own of not getting detected after violating human rights,” he added.

During his tenure at the Ahmedabad City Detection of Crime Branch as Deputy Commissioner of Police and at the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad as Deputy Inspector General of Police, Vanzara had many alleged encounters to his credit. In the Sohrabuddin case, even the Gujarat government has admitted before the Supreme Court that the encounter was staged.

Apart from Vanzara, suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police Dr Narendra Amin has also applied for CIC examination and has demanded a laptop for the same.

Generally, these examinations are available only for convicts, although with special permission, even the undertrials can appear in the examinations conducted by two open universities— IGNOU and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University.

“After certain controversies arose after Dr Amin applied for the examination, the jail authorities have decided not to grant permission to any undertrial to appear for the examination,” said a senior jail official.

“Vanzara had appeared for the examination in December, as he had already filled the form; but now, he won’t be allowed to appear for it in future,” he added.

Suspended cop seeks bail