Panel should have waited for SIT report, says Sreekumar

Sreekumar fell out with the Modi Government in 2002, when as intelligence chief of the state police he reported to then Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh that the situation in the state was not conducive for conducting free and fair polls. He later filed affidavits before the Nanavati-Shah Commission showing alleged complicity of the police in the 2002 riots as well as the roles of some 8220;highly placed8221; persons in the conflagration. He was later charge-sheeted.

8220;I was being forced to toe the Government line and call the Sabarmati carnage a conspiracy. I was pressurised and even intimidated. I have clearly mentioned this in my affidavits submitted before the Commission. They were, however, never cross-examined,8221; he said.