Gujarat riots evidence falsification case: Court rejects former DGP Sreekumar's discharge petition
AHMEDABAD: A sessions court in Ahmedabad Monday rejected an application by former DGP R B Sreekumar seeking discharge in a case registered against him for fabricating evidence of a conspiracy behind the 2002 riots in order to falsely implicate people including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sreekumar requested discharge on the grounds that he had been falsely accused and had nothing to do with Zakia Jafri's appeal against the SIT's closure report. Despite the fact that no one was named in the Supreme Court decision, the FIR against him and others was filed in haste.
On Monday, The sessions Court while rejecting Sreekumar's discharge application observed that the “Prosecution in its case has submitted enough evidence which primarily built the case against the applicant, primarily there is enough evidence to run a trial against the applicant, the prosecution has submitted an audio tape of the conversation between the applicant and another person the voice of application has been confirmed by Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) which give sufficient reason to the court to reject application discharge application,”
Earlier, Sreekumar Claimed that the accusations against him were supported by his affidavits provided to the Nanavati-Shah commission which was probing the 2002 Gujarat riots. They are unconvincing since he is protected under Section 6 of the Commission of Inquiries Act. Furthermore, no required sentence under Section 197 of the CrPC has been imposed on him. Sreekumar also denied tutoring witnesses and forgery allegations against him. Additionally, he asserted that Setalvad was the target of a grudge held by witness Raees Khan and that his accusatory statement could not be taken seriously.
Special prosecutor Amit Patel Told TNIE that, “Ahmedabad sessions court on Monday rejected an R B Sreekumar’s application on the basis of the evidence provided by the Prosecution,”
On June 25, 2022, One day after Zakia Jafri's appeal against the closure report submitted by the special investigation team (SIT) was rejected by the Supreme Court, the city crime branch filed an FIR charging Sreekumar, social activist Teesta Setalvad, and another ex-IPS officer, Sanjiv Bhatt.
Sreekumar and Bhatt had charged the three for offences under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 468 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence), 211 (false charge of offence made with intent to injure) and 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture).