2002 Gujarat Riots: HC Issues Notice to State on Ex-DGP Sreekumar’s Plea

The Gujarat High Court has issued a notice to the state government regarding a plea filed by former Director General of Police (DGP) R B Sreekumar. He is seeking to be discharged in a case related to the fabrication of evidence to implicate “innocent individuals” in the 2002 riots cases.

A bench of Justice Hasmukh Suthar issued the notice to the state government and the investigating officer of the case.

In June 2022, Sreekumar, along with social activist Teesta Setalvad and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, was arrested by the city crime branch on charges of forgery and fabricating false evidence with the intent to implicate Gujarat government officials, including then-Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the 2002 riots cases.

Sreekumar, who is currently out on regular bail along with Setalvad, approached the high court after the sessions court rejected his discharge plea in June. He maintains his innocence in the case and asserts that he was wrongly implicated, as he had no involvement in Jafri’s appeal against the closure report of the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT).

The case against the three accused was registered after the Supreme Court dismissed a plea filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was killed during the riots. They were charged under sections 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with the intent to procure conviction for a capital offense) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), among others.

The plea alleged a “larger conspiracy” behind the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, implicating then-CM Modi. However, the court upheld the SIT’s clearance of Modi and 63 others.

In its judgment, the Supreme Court noted, “At the end of the day, it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge.” The court emphasized that the falsity of their claims had been fully exposed by the SIT after a thorough investigation and stated that those involved in such an abuse of process should face legal proceedings.

Ehsan Jafri was one of the 68 people killed at Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society during the violence on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train burning that claimed 59 lives.