The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) through its secretary,
Teesta Setalvad has approached the NHRC for restoration of the 24
hour police protection given to former DGP Gujarat RB Sreekumar
since October 2007. Sreekumar a key witness in the Zakia Jafri
case faces serious threat from a vindictive state government
against whom he has taken a clear and principled stand on ethics
and governance. CJP met NHRC Chairperson Justice KG Balakrishnan
today expressing serious concern and thus sudden and inexplicable
withdrawal. It is learnt that a committee consisting of ACS Home
SK Nanda and DIG Intelligence took this sudden and inexplicable
decision on the late evening of September 24.
Attached is the previous correspondence related to the question.
In 2007 it was on just such a request to NHRC after a break into
the former DGP’s Gandhinagar residence that the government of
Gujarat had been compelled to give protection in the first place.
As
recently widely reported arguments made in the Zakia Jafri case
have shown, RB Sreekumar’s direct evidence relate to the
consistent warnings from state intelligence of communal
mobilisation the home department of the government of Gujarat
headed by Narendra Modi that were wilfully ignored; direct
evidence related to illegal instructions issued by the home
minister himself; direct evidence related to the state police and
intelligence’s own independent assessments of the communal and
hate driven speeches of A-1 Modi and collaborators from the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP). The government’s action is a sinister
signal.