The Gujarat government today told the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that senior IPS officer R B Sreekumar was denied promotion because he faces a criminal case.However, the government admitted that two other officers—Additional Commissioner D G Vanjhara and Additional Director-General S S Khandwavala—who had been convicted in criminal cases had been promoted. This, it said, was because the committee deciding on promotions did not know of the cases. In his April statement to the tribunal, Sreekumar had cited the promotion of these officers.Sreekumar, who was heading the state Intelligence Bureau during the Godhra carnage and some weeks of the post-Godhra riots, had complained to the CAT that he was denied promotion ever since he deposed before the Shah-Nanavati commission probing the riots.
