'Modi's office asked not to take proactive steps during riots'
Suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma has alleged that during the 2002 riots he received a call from Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's office asking him to tell his brother, IPS officer Kuldeep Sharma, to not take action against rioters.
Pradeep, who was municipal commissioner of Jamnagar during the 2002 post-Godhra riots and is presently in jail in a land scam case, has made the allegation in a letter to Special Investigation Team (SIT) chairman R.K. Raghavan and has offered to depose before the agency.
His letter comes within a few days of an affidavit by senior IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt alleging complicity on Modi's part in not taking prompt action during the riots.
"I had received a phone call from the chief minister's office stating that I should ask my brother K.N. Sharma, then posted as IGP Ahmedabad range, that he should abstain from taking any proactive measures in favour of the minorities," Pradeep has said.
In the letter, he has expressed his readiness to reveal before the SIT the name of the officer who had called him from Modi's office.
Pradeep is in jail in Bhuj for his alleged role in a land scam in Kutch.
Pradeep's brother Kuldeep Sharma has been fighting a legal battle against the state government for degrading his ranking in his annual confidential report (ACR). He recently obtained a stay to the ACR from the central administrative tribunal.
He has alleged that Modi is trying to thwart his career prospects because when he was the state CID (crime) chief, his actions in some cases irked the ruling BJP.
As the CID chief, he had directed submission of the first interim probe report related to the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case before the Supreme Court. It led to a chain of events and several officers landed in jail.
He has said in the petition before CAT that this was not liked by the political bosses.
Kuldeep is now on a deputation to the Central government.
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