Sanjiv Bhatt did not expose govt role in 2002: RB Sreekumar

Former DGP RB Sreekumar on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Nanavati commission claiming that no police officer then posted in state intelligence branch (SIB), including Sanjiv Bhatt, had provided him with documents that could expose the role of the state government in the 2002 communal riots. 

The retired police officer has further said that earlier, in 2002, Bhatt had also refused to file an affidavit before the Nanavati commission despite the verbal order of the then Gujarat director general of police (DGP).

Sreekumar, a whistleblower police officer, has filed a series of affidavits before the Nanavati commission accusing the Narendra Modi government of subverting the criminal justice system to deny justice to the victims of the 2002 communal riots. He was ADGP-CID (Intelligence) from April 9, 2002 to October 18, 2002.

Bhatt, however, exposed the state government’s alleged role in the riots only in 2010 by filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court. In the affidavit, he alleged that Modi had instructed senior police officers at a meeting held at the chief minister’s residence on February 27, 2002 “to let Hindus vent their anger against Muslims”. Later, he had also revealed the state government’s role during his cross-examination before the Nanavati commission.

In his letter to the commission, Sreekumar has said that he had requested senior officers of the SIB, including Bhatt, to file affidavits covering the terms of reference of the commission.

"But all of them, including Bhatt, refused to submit affidavits," Sreekumar has said in his letter.  In his first affidavit filed in July 2002 Sreekumar had stated that government officials had acted promptly to control the riots. Referring to this affidavit, Sreekumar has stated in his latest letter that his observation was necessitated by unavailability of any records about officers' wilful negligence in implementing the government's instructions to control the riots.  He further said that none of the state intelligence officers, including Bhatt, had provided any input about culpable acts by government functionaries which might have led to the anti-minority killings in the period from February 27 to April 8, 2002.  "So I portrayed the law and order situation in the state upto April 8 2002 , i.e., before my taking charge of SIB as ADGP, solely based on the information provided by SIB officials, including Sanjiv Bhatt," says Sreekumar in the letter.

The former DGP has further said that most of the reports submitted by the officers were in the form of alert messages to the executive officers in the field.

"It did not have any information about the subversion of the criminal justice system to deny and delay justice to the riot victims, through acts of commission and omission by state govt officials," the letter states.

Sreekumar has further alleged that his predecessor in the SIB, GC Raigar, had also not filed any affidavit regarding the riots despite the order of the then DGP, K Chakravarthi. Raigar was later promoted by the government superseding even Sreekumar who was senior to him.