EX-GUJARAT POLICE CHIEF COMMENDS BHATT’S AFFIDAVIT AGAINST MODI
Indian Express.com: Posted online: Fri Apr 22 2011, 17:33 hrs
Ahmedabad: Former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar on Thursday commended fellow police officer Sanjiv Bhatt for implicating Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Godhra riots.
Bhatt has filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court alleging that Modi categorically issued instructions that Hindus should be allowed to express their anger, while Muslims should be taught a befitting lesson so that incidents like the burning of Sabarmati Express never happen again in Gujarat.
Sreekumar, who had waged a lone battle against the Modi Government in the aftermath of the Godhra riots, said he was happy and welcomed the affidavit as it validated his own affidavit about the riots.
“I am happy, and I welcome this affidavit as it validates the my affidavit on the 27th February 2002 meeting,” Sreekumar told a private television news channel.
“The SIT has been functioning like the B-Team of Gujarat Police and like a group of defence lawyers who are out to save Narendra Modi and other culprits of the 2002 massacre,” Sreekumar said.
For standing upto Modi, Sreekumar was superceded by a junior officer to the rank of DGP and even named in a chargesheet. However, after three long years of legal battles he was appointed a DGP-level officer.
The riots in 2002 took place after the burning of the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, in which 59 kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh were killed. The riots claimed over 1,000 lives.
The affidavit by Bhatt is available also at <
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/10707696/1475372880/name/Sanjiv_Bhatt.pdf>.