At a press conference here on Tuesday, Sreekumar, who was heading the Gujarat Police in 2002 when the anti-Muslim riots took place, alleged that the BJP had raked up the 20-year-old ISRO spying case to “malign” him. “They have called me anti-national and traitor. Why don’t they try me for perjury? I am ready for it,” he said, adding that the case had been closed by the NDA government.
The hearing is listed for November 21, his lawyer Brijesh Kalappa said.
Sreekumar said the BJP had “woken up like Rip Van Winkle” after 20 years, as his 600-page statement to the Special Investigating Team on the events leading to the 2002 Gujarat riots were crucial evidence on the Zakia Jafri case, slated to come up for hearing on December 2. Alleging that the ‘conspiracy’ to malign him was “hatched in Kerala between Modi and Nambi Narayanan during the former’s visit to Mata Amritanandmayi’s Ashram” in September this year, Sreekumar said he had abided by the Constitution and was ready for a narco test anywhere in India, except Gujarat.
In early November, the BJP had held a press conference alleging that Sreekumar had levelled charges of fake encounters against the Modi Government as a quid pro quo for the UPA regime giving him a clean chit in 2004, in the ‘fabricated’ ISRO spy case of 1994 in which he played a key role.
BJP spokesperson Lekhi had also played an audio of a purported phone conversation between one Rais Khan, said to be an aide of activist-lawyer Teesta Setalvad, and Sreekumar to “prove” that the Gujarat police officer and Setalvad were “working in tandem to target the Modi Government.”
Former Gujarat police chief, RB Sreekumar, who took on Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the fake encounter issue, on Tuesday filed a defamation case in Delhi’s Patiala House courts against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Rajnath Singh, BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi and former ISRO scientist, S Nambi Narayanan (who had reportedly termed the cop as a ‘CIA agent’).
The former police officer, who has filed nine affidavits in the Gujarat riots case, also accused Modi of ordering him to tap the phone of former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankar Singh Vaghela and deceased BJP leader Haren Pandya.