D. G. Vanzara was Deputy Inspector General (DIG) for Gujarat. A so-called "supercop", he has was in jail from 2007 to 2015 for his role in overseeing a number of fake encounters from 2002 to 2006. He was known to be close to Amit Shah, who made 331 calls to Vanzara and other police officers, many around the time of the killings.
Vanzara was also close to Narendra Modi who he regarded like a God. He has stated that the encounter killings were state government policy. Vanzara was apparently also a devotee of Asaram Bapu.