This Article is From Mar 10, 2012

Godhra riots: Minorities Commission summons Gujarat IPS officers

Godhra riots: Minorities Commission summons Gujarat IPS officers
Ahmedabad: National Commission for Minorities has summoned some former and serving Gujarat IPS officers in connection with the alleged destruction of crucial records pertaining to the 2002 Godhra riots cases.

The Commission has directed IPS officers Sanjiv Bhatt (now suspended), Rahul Sharma and former State Intelligence Bureau Chief R B Sreekumar to appear before it in this regard.

"I shall be deposing before the NCM on March 12. We have been called regarding a representation filed before the Commission citing instances of destruction of the evidence related to 2002 riots in Gujarat," Bhatt said.

The Commission has called on those IPS officers who were then serving the state and are well aware of the developments that took place after the Godhra riots.

"I was asked by the commission to depose before it on March 12, but due to some prior engagement I have sought for a later date in this month," Sreekumar, who is now retired, said.

Another IPS officer Rahul Sharma who was also summoned by the NCM could not be reached for his reaction.

A representation citing destruction of riot-related evidence by the Narendra Modi government was filed before the Commission stating that the then serving IPS officers were fully aware of the destruction of property and subsequent developments taking place in the state, Sreekumar said.

In his letter to Justice G T Nanavati and Akshay Mehta Commission, which is probing the 2002 Godhra riots, Bhatt had alleged that the Gujarat government "systematically" destroyed the evidence related to the 2002 riots.

He had said that "very crucial and relevant records" have been "deviously" suppressed or destroyed by the Gujarat government as well as the Supreme Court-appointed SIT headed by R K Raghavan, with the "diabolical" motive of shielding powerful persons from legal punishment.

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