Apr
22
Gujarat police officer says government authorized killings
April 22, 2005 | Comments Off on Gujarat police officer says government authorized killings
RB Sreekumar, former Gujarat intelligence chief, has revealed that the Gujarat government authorized and encouraged killings during the 2002 pogroms.
He brought a case against the Gujarat government, saying he was denied a promotion for refusing to act upon the “illegal and unconstitutional directives” of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as well as the state government and senior state police officers.
Mr Sreekumar has submitted his notes to India Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which investigates complaints by civil servants.
In his notes, Sreekumar wrote that after his April 2002 appointment as intelligece chief, senior government officials asked him to kill Muslim extremists allegedly involved in rioting. In May 2002, the state police chief told him that Gujarat’s most senior civil servants had spoken about “eliminating those Muslim extremists who are disturbing the communal peace of Ahmedabad.”
In a June entry, Sreekumar wrote that a senior civil servant, G Subba Rao, told him to “eliminate” anyone who tries to disrupt a Hindu religious event, and added that this was the decision of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
He further claims that when he informed Mr Subba Rao that such “elimination” was illegal, he was told that “such action can be taken on situational logic”.
In another entry in May 2002, Mr Sreekumar wrote that Narendra Modi asked him to concentrate on suspected Muslim militants as hardline Hindu activists are “not doing anything illegal”.
He also alleges in his petition that state government lawyers tried to “tutor him” before he submitted his deposition to the commission.
The tribunal has issued notices to Narendra Modi and other government officials requesting that they reply to the allegations by May 9.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat government has released a statement that Sreekumar’s charges are false and motivated by his denial of a promotion.
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