In a setback to former IPS officer R. B. Srikumar, a local court in Ahmedabad on June 19 rejected his plea seeking discharge in a case registered against him for fabricating evidence linked to the 2002 Gujarat riots.
He was booked and arrested along with Mumbai based social activist Teesta Setalvad, who is presently out on bail in the case and another ex IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who is serving a jail term in a separate case.
The court on June 19 rejected the plea. A detailed order is still awaited.
The case relates to an FIR lodged against Sreekumar, activist Teesta Setalvad and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt by the Detection of Crime Branch of Ahmedabad Police for forgery, fabrication of evidence and criminal conspiracy to implicate the then CM and now PM Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 riots cases.
The FIR was based on a Supreme Court verdict last year that upheld the clean chit to then chief minister Narendra Modi; his ministerial colleagues and top bureaucrats over their alleged role in the 2002 riots in which over 1000 people were killed across the state in the year 2002.
Following the FIR and their arrest, the Police filed a charge sheet against them citing 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 person from punishment or property from forfeiture).
However, Mr. Sreekumar had filed a plea seeking discharge contending that there was specific allegation against him in the FIR and whatever submissions he had made before the judicial commission while he was serving as a top police official of the state could not be used against him to prosecute him as per a Supreme Court order.
The former DGP had filed a discharge application under CrPC section 239, before the charges were framed, citing his innocence.
During the hearing, the state government strongly opposed the plea and submitted that prima facie, sufficient evidence was brought on record against the accused to show his role in a larger conspiracy to allegedly implicate the then CM and others based on fabricated evidence and false statements regarding the riots cases.
