The Hindu : National : Shreekumar not eligible for promotion, Gujarat Government tells tribunal

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Friday, Jul 15, 2005

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National

Shreekumar not eligible for promotion, Gujarat Government tells tribunal

Special Correspondent

No mala fide intention, says reply filed on behalf of Chief Minister Modi

Next hearing on July 28

I was refused promotion because of my exposures: Shreekumar

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat Government has denied any mala fide intention in refusing promotion to Additional Director-General of Police R. B. Shreekumar.

In its reply filed before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) here on Thursday, it said he was "not eligible as per the promotion rules."

The seven-page reply was filed jointly on behalf of the Government, Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who holds the Home portfolio, the Director-General of Police, the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary (Home). Two other respondents, named by Mr. Shreekumar, who have been granted promotion and who have superseded the ADGP, including Ahmedabad Police Commissioner K. R. Kaushik, have not filed any reply.

Mr. Shreekumar's advocate, Girish Patel, sought 15 days time to study the Government's reply and the next hearing has been fixed for July 28.

According to government pleader B. N. Doctor, the Government, claimed that Mr. Shreekumar's allegations were "false and baseless." It maintained that his "non-promotion" had nothing to do with his statements before the Nanavati-Shah Commission, probing the Godhra train carnage and the subsequent communal riots, the National Human Rights Commission and other statutory bodies.

Mr. Shreekumar alleged that he was refused promotion only because of his "exposures" before the statutory bodies of some "illegal instructions" which the Chief Minister and some senior administrative and police officials issued and which he refused to carry out.

Mr. Shreekumar alleged that as chief of the State Intelligence Bureau during the communal riots, he was asked to tap the telephones of some senior political leaders, including Union Textile Minister, Shankarsinh Waghela, who then was the State Congress president, and keep a close watch on the activities of minorities. But he refused to do so.

"Criminal cases"

Asked what "rule" came in the way of Mr. Shreekumar's promotion, Mr. Doctor declined to elaborate and said it would be disclosed only before the tribunal.

He said three "criminal cases" were pending against Mr. Shreekumar and a departmental inquiry was in progress.

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