The Times of India - August 18, 2004
Former intelligence top cop blows Modi's cover
LEENA MISRA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2004 06:45:54 AM ]
AHMEDABAD: A former head of the intelligence wing of the Gujarat police has sent a shudder across the establishment by filing an explosive affidavit before the judicial commission probing the post-Godhra riots.
A copy of the 172-page affidavit filed by additional director general of police R B Sreekumar has been procured by The Times of India officially from the commission. It lists instances of complicity of the police and politicians in the post-Godhra violence which rocked the state two-and-a-half years ago. It cites specific instances of police subversion in controlling the riots and manipulating investigations to help the perpetrators.
The affidavit annexes an analytical note sent to the then additional chief secretary (home) Ashok Narayan, on April 24, 2002, quoting senior police officers on "officers at the decisive rung of the hierarchical ladder, like inspectors in charge of police stations, ignoring the specific instructions from the official hierarchy on account of their getting direct verbal instructions from the senior political leaders of the ruling party."
Sreekumar says in the affidavit, "Such officers have become quite adept in doing the art of deceptive law enforcement for the benefit of their political friends, who ensure their placement and continuance in their choicest executive posts, at the cost of the spirit and letter of the laws of the land." The jitters caused by the affidavit are already evident. The Narendra Modi government says it is "highly sensitive" and "should not be made public."
Sreekumar, who became additional DGP (intelligence), about 40 days after the riots started, was later transferred from the intelligence department because the political leadership suspected his role in the leakage to the media of the infamous Modi tapes. Now in-charge of police reforms and modernisation, Sreekumar cites specific intelligence reports about how a sarpanch owing allegiance to Shiv Sena led a conspiracy to incite communal disturbance even in the relatively peaceful Kutch to deter riot-affected Muslims in other parts of the state from migrating here.
There is also a departmental order forwarded to the then Ahmedabad police commissioner P C Pande and DGP K Chakravarthi, (dated April 26, 2002) talking about "Bajrang Dal (BD) leaders likely to distribute lethal weapons like swords, daggers, acid bulbs, petrol bombs on Hanuman Jayanti to their workers." The affidavit also talks about possible attacks, led by named VHP leaders, on Muslim pockets in several areas of Ahmedabad.
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