New Delhi: A former top cop has claimed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi wanted to meet Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was lynched by a mob in the post-Godhra riots of 2002, but was prevented from doing so by party leaders.
According to an Indian Express report, Retired DGP R B Sreekumar, who was chief of the Gujarat Intelligence Bureau from April-September in 2002, made the sensational revelation in his recently launched book-Gujarat: Behind the Curtain.
The book talks about several events that occurred during the 2002 riots and later.
In his book, he came down heavily upon BJP and Sangh Parivar for their role in the violence and accused Congress for betraying the expectations of riot victims regarding justice.
Slamming Congress for its fear of hurting Hindu sentiments, Sreekumar writes “Soulless secularism and over-sensitivity to Hindu sentiments presumably prompted Congress leaders to block the plans of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to visit Zakia Jafri… during her Gujarat visit after the riots, for expressing condolence.”
He also accuses UPA govt that came to power in 2004 and SP government in UP of failing to provide evidence that could have aided probe into the Godhra carnage and riot cases.
He also alleges that Manmohan Singh regime ignored demands for a separate judicial commission to probe the chief minister (Modi).
Sreekumar says the closure report filed by Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team on Zakia Jafri's complaint against then chief minister Modi and 62 others did not have legal standing. -
Sreekumar, who retired in 2007, works with victims of human rights violations and joined the Aam Aadmi Party last year. He resigned from its primary membership recently after the CBI raid against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's trusted bureaucrat Rajendra Kumar.
Sreekumar, the first serving officer to depose against the Gujarat government after the 2002 Gujarat riots, has claimed in his book that he had written an anonymous letter to then President in 2002 regarding the deteriorating law and order situation in Gujarat.
Sreekumar, in his interview with Catch news, has talked about his encounters with Narendra Modi and claimed that the now prime minister had asked him to cook up cases against Congress leaders and tap Shanker Singh Vaghela's phone.
Sreekumar, a recipient of Medal for Meritorious Service in 1990 and a Medal for Distinguished Service in 1998, is the grandson of famous Indian revolutionary freedom fighter, nationalist, journalist and writer Balaramapuram G Raman Pillai.
