As if superseding him was not enough, the Narendra Modi government has issued a nine-point charge-sheet to Additional Director General of Police RB Sreekumar, proving that the Modi regime is determined to teach him a lesson.

The 700-page charge-sheet says the top officer contravened rules by disclosing classified documents to media, secretly recording conversation with government officials, maintaining a private diary of official proceedings and spoiling the Centre-state relations.

This happened in spite of being tutored before his deposition to the Nanavati-Shah commission probing the Godhra and post-Godhra riots in 2002. State Law and Order Secretary GC Murmu and government pleader Arvind Pandya had conducted a mock drill and tutored Sreekumar on what to hide during his deposition before the commission.

Sreekumar, the only IPS officer in Gujarat to expose the Modi regime’s diabolical role in the post-Godhra riots in which Muslims were massacred, refused to toe the government line when he was IB chief in 2002. He also filed three affidavits before the commission which detail how the Modi regime and its officials were facilitating the genocide.

Sreekumar was superseded in February 2005 when the state Home Department promoted his junior to the rank of Director General. When he filed a case in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the government replied that he was facing an inquiry and therefore left out.

But the arguments forwarded by the government turned out to be false because despite that inquiry, the same government had promoted him twice and defended him in the High Court. But then Narendra Modi wanted a pretext to punish Sreekumar who has shown allegiance to the Constitution and not to the Chief Minister and his style of functioning.

According to sources, the charge-sheet could be the first step of the government strategy to have him dismissed. Once it is achieved, Narndera Modi would feel that he had sent a signal that nobody could dare stand up against him.

The main points in the charge-sheet are themselves on flimsy grounds. It accuses Sreekumar of clandestinely recording conversations with the government officials and revealing it to the media. The charge-sheet has described “tutoring” of Sreekumar by Murmu and Arvind Pandya as a routine briefing of officials. However, in the routine briefing, the secretary and pleader subtly threatened that if he did not defend government, he would face dire consequences.

Regarding his diary, the government has accused him of keeping official proceedings in a private diary. But what about the “illegal” orders Sreekumar was given by government officials, including Chief Minister Modi? He was asked to tap the phones of the then state Congress chief Shankersinh Vaghela and BJP leader Haren Pandya.

When contacted, Principal Secretary (Home) KC Kapoor who issued the charge-sheet, declined to comment saying, “We have issued a charge-sheet to Sreekumar. I would not comment further on this.”

However, according to the sources, the government feels that its case before CAT is weak and the tribunal could direct the government to give promotion to him. In that event, this latest charge-sheet might come as a handy tool to still withhold his promotion.