Fake encounters meant to justify 2002 Gujarat riots: Sreekumar

DGP (retired) RB Sreekumar has alleged that all the encounters that had taken place in the state after the communal riots of 2002 were fake and part of a political strategy to justify the riots. The former DGP said this on Monday in the backdrop of the Gujarat high court accepting the SIT's conclusion that the Ishrat encounter was not genuine.

Sreekumar was the first cop to expose, before Nanavati panel, Modi government's alleged role in the 2002 riots.

Talking to DNA, he alleged that after 2002, the Gujarat government wanted fake encounters in the state. He said that in his third affidavit filed in April 2005 before the commission, he had stated that the then Gujarat DGP, K Chakravarthy, had called him up on May 1, 2002, and told him that the state government wanted such encounters to take place. Sreekumar had further alleged that, after the riots, there were many verbal instructions from higher officials.

He had made two entries regarding the verbal orders given for starting fake encounters in the state. Sreekumar said the first such killing had allegedly occurred in May 2002 and the second in June 2002.

"In May 2002, Chakravarty had called for a meeting and said that the then Gujarat chief secretary Subba Rao had told him that some encounter killings should be carried out," Sreekumar alleged.

The second such instruction allegedly came in June 2002. Sreekumar said that those were the days before the rathyatra. He was allegedly contacted by Subba Rao and told that whoever intends to disturb the rathyatra should be eliminated.