Ex-IPS officer Sreekumar files defamation case against Modi

Former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar, who had taken on Narendra Modi on fake encounter issue, on Tuesday filed a defamation and conspiracy case against the Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate and other party leaders, accusing them of launching a malicious campaign against him by raking up the two-decade-old Indian Space Research Organisation spy case.

The ex-police officer, who has filed nine affidavits in the Gujarat riots case and was heading the intelligence wing in the state in 2002, also accused Modi of ordering him to tap the phone of former Gujarat CM Shankar Singh Vaghela. The latest allegations come close on heels of the controversy over Modi's aide Amit Shah allegedly ordering surveillance of a woman in Gujarat in 2009.

Comparing Modi to the villain 'Duryodhana' in the epic Mahabharata, Sreekumar said he has filed a defamation case against Modi, BJP chief Rajnath Singh and party spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi. Besides, scientist Nambi Narayan, who had reportedly termed the cop as a 'CIA agent', has also been named in the case.

"They indulged in extreme vilification campaign, malicious propaganda against me continuously by raking up a case closed by the National Democratic Alliance and the subsequent United Progressive Alliance governments and also the Supreme Court," Sreekumar told reporters in New Delhi.

A case of defamation and conspiracy has been filed against the BJP leaders in the Patiala house court, advocate Brijesh Kalappa, who accompanied the former IAS officer, told reporters. "The hearing in the matter is listed for November 21," he told PTI.

The BJP had alleged that Sreekumar had levelled charges of fake encounters against the Modi government as a quid pro quo for the UPA dispensation giving him a clean chit in the ISRO spy case.

Sreekumar on Tuesday claimed that he became persona non grata after he started to report against the BJP "controlled" government in Gujarat after Modi took over as the chief minister.

"Don't pursue power through communalisation and unconstitutional methods," he said, hitting out at Modi. Sreekumar said he refused to act on the phone tapping direction of Modi, as he did not have any report against

Vaghela necessitating such an action.

Kalappa claimed that attempts were being made by the BJP to paint Sreekumar in the black only with a view to see that bulk of his evidence in Zakia Jaffery's petition is trashed, verdict on which is expected on December 2.