Ahmedabad: Former Gujarat Director General of Police, RB Sreekumar, who was arrested in June on the charge of “conspiring to falsely implicate innocent persons” in connection with the 2002 Gujarat communal riots, has approached the sessions court here seeking regular bail.“Sreekumar filed a bail application in the sessions court which is likely to come up for a hearing on July 6, 2022”, his lawyer S.M. Vora said on July 5, 2022. In his application, the former IPS officer claimed that no case is made out against him under the sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) under which he was arrested.A day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit given by an SIT to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots cases, Gujarat police on June 25, 2022 arrested Sreekumar. He was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. Sreekumar was Additional Director General of Police (Armed Unit) during the 2002 Godhra train burning incident. He was later posted as the ADGP, Intelligence.Also read: Condemned by Innuendo: Some Questions on the SC Order That Led to Teesta Setalvad’s ArrestActivist Teesta Setalvad was arrested under similar charges on June 26, 2022 by the Ahmedabad crime branch, a day after she was detained in Mumbai.“We have argued that there is no offence against Sreekumar under sections 468 and 471 (of IPC). He has been accused in the FIR of having filed nine affidavits before the Justice Nanavati-Mehta Commission of Inquiry. The Commission does not have the authority to punish,” Vora said.The FIR was filed against Sreekumar, Setalvad, and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt soon after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the clean chit given by the SIT to Modi and others in the 2002 post-Godhra riots cases. The trio is accused of abusing the process of law by conspiring to fabricate evidence in an attempt to frame innocent people for an offence punishable with capital punishment in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.The FIR stated that most of the allegations in petitioner Zakai Jafri’s complaint were drawn from the nine affidavits filed by Sreekumar before the Commission. The content of the affidavits “does not derive any of its content from the personal knowledge/information which he might have received as the occupant of this post,” it stated. Sreekumar’s statement made before the Supreme Court-appointed SIT reveals that the facts he had mentioned were acquired after he was posted as the Additional DGP (Intelligence) on April 9, 2002, it said.Setalvad, Sreekumar, and Bhatt were booked under sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (forgery), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence), 211 (institute criminal proceedings to cause injury), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture), and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.A Special Investigation Team headed by Gujarat ATS DIG, Deepan Bhadran, is investigating the case.(PTI)
