Former IPS officer R. B. Sreekumar and activist Teesta Setalvad were taken into custody by the Ahmedabad crime branch on Saturday for allegedly providing disinformation related to the Gujarat riots. 

This comes just a day after the Supreme Court of India upheld SIT’s clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 69 other officials in the case. 

Who is R. B. Sreekumar?

R. B. Sreekumar is a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and a former Gujarat State Additional Director-General of Police. He is the grandson of freedom fighter, writer, and journalist Balaramapuram G Raman Pillai.

Sreekumar was born on February 12, 1947, in Kerala’s Ooruttambalam, a suburban region located in the Trivandrum district. He holds a post-graduate degree in literature, law, history, and Gandhian philosophy. He briefly worked as a university lecturer before joining Gujarat’s police force.

Sreekumar, a 1971 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, began working in the state’s police force in 1972. In August 2000, he was appointed as Additional Director-General of Police. He continued serving in the police force until his retirement in 2007.

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The 75-year-old was immediately appointed as Intelligence DGP after the 2002 Gujarat riots. He came to prominence after filing affidavits to the Nanavati-Mehta Commission and the then Chief Election Commissioner of India, James Michael Lyngdoh, alleging that politicians had played a suspicious role in the riots.

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He also filed a defamation lawsuit against space scientist Nambi Narayanan in connection with the ISRO espionage case.

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Subsequently, his promotion to the rank of Director General of Police was rejected by the government of Gujarat. 

Sreekumar was married to Rajalakshmi. The couple’s daughter, Deepa, is a Gandhinagar-based attorney.