Gujarat police refuse to file ex-IAS officer’s FIR against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah
Gandhinagar – The Gujarat police today refused to register suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma’s criminal complaint against Narendra Modi and his close aide Amit Shah in connection with the alleged spying on a young woman by state officials.
Mr Sharma had gone to the Gandhinagar police to file an FIR, or police complaint, against the Chief Minister and two others but was reportedly told that there is already a judicial commission investigating the case.
“I told the police officer that this is a criminal offense and you have to file an FIR, but they refused,” Mr Sharma told reporters, adding that he would go to the Deputy Superintendent of Police with his complaint based on the revelations of two news portals, Gulail and cobrapost.com.
The portals had recently claimed that audio tapes with the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI reveal that in 2009, Amit Shah, Gujarat’s then Home Minister, ordered the state’s senior police officers to spy on Mr Sharma and the woman at the behest of a “sahib” or “boss.”
The Congress has alleged that Mr Modi was the “boss” referred to in those conversations, whose authenticity has not been corroborated by the CBI.
Last month, gulail.com said it had accessed more conversations that prove the woman was spied upon by Gujarat officials even when she was in Bangalore.
The BJP has not refuted that the woman was followed by police officers when she traveled to Gujarat; the party says her father, who was known to Mr Modi, was worried about her safety and asked for her to be protected. Last month, a letter from the woman’s father verified that claim, added that the woman was aware of her surveillance, and requested the National Commission for Women to ignore demands for an investigation out of respect for her privacy.
Pradeep Sharma has alleged that he was targeted and false charges were slapped on him as Mr Modi feared that the young woman had shared a sensitive video clip with him.
Mr Sharma faces several cases including one for the alleged embezzlement of funds meant for earthquake victims and favours to corporate houses in the allotment of land for factories.
