Gujarat High Court Issues Notice On Ex-DGP Sreekumar's Discharge Plea In Fabrication Of Evidence In 2002 Riots Case

A Bench of Justice Hasmukh D. Suthar directed “Issue NOTICE making it returnable on 26.09.2023."

Advocate YN Ravani appeared for the Applicant and Advocate Mitesh Amin appeared for the Respondents.

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

Sreekumar, who is currently out on regular bail along with Setalvad, had approached the High Court to challenge the order of the sessions court that rejected his discharge plea in June. He has consistently maintained his innocence in the case, asserting that he was wrongly accused as he had no involvement in Zakia Jafri's (wife of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was one of the 68 people killed at Ahmedabad's Gulberg Society during the violence on February 28, 2002, following the Godhra train burning incident that claimed 59 lives) appeal against the closure report of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The three accused were booked 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 in question alleged a "larger conspiracy" behind the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, implicating the then-Chief Minister Narendra Modi. However, the Supreme Court in 2022 had upheld the SIT's findings and cleared Modi and 63 others of any wrongdoing.

Cause Title: Raman Pillai Bhaskaren Nair Sreekumar v. State of Gujarat

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