Thursday, March 3 2005 22:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ahmedabad: The top Gujarat police officer, R B Sreekumar, whose deposition before the Godhra inquiry panel had 'exposed' the State Government's handling of the post-Godhra communal riots, today (March 3, 2005) said that an IAS officer and a Government advocate had tried to 'tutor' him to talk in favour of the Government.

Reacting to an expose by 'Tehelka', in which IAS officer G C Murmu and Government advocate Arvind Pandya are heard in an audio tape 'tutoring' him, the Additional Director General of Police told sources in Ahmedabad that "they did attempt to tutor me to give pro-Government replies. But I knew what I had to do, that was to speak the truth".

In the tape, Advocate Pandya is heard telling Sreekumar what were the probable questions that could be asked to him by the Commission during the cross-examination and what reply he should give.

However, Sreekumar said he was unaware as to who had recorded the conversation.

Despite repeated attempts, neither Pandya nor Murmu were available for comments.

Reacting to the expose, Principal Secretary (Home) K C Kapoor said he was unaware of the developments and could not comment on it.

Sreekumar had on August 31 last year deposed before the commission where he spoke openly about the Government's handling of the riots and had also submitted detailed affidavits in this regard.