Hyderabad: Social activist and former journalist Teesta Setalvad on Sunday was arrested by the Gujarat ATS for allegedly providing false information to police regarding the 2002 Gujarat riots. The development comes a day after the Supreme Court turned down a plea challenging the clean chit provided by SIT to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Recently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in an interview that Setalvad provided baseless information to police regarding the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Setalvad is a founding trustee of the NGO-Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP). Established in 2002 following the Gujarat riots, the NGO aims to provide legal and financial support to the victims of the riots. The petition against Narendra Modi and others which was dismissed by the Supreme Court was filed by Setalvad, CJP, and Zakia Jafri, whose husband former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the Gujarat riots.
Setalvad in 2007 convinced the Supreme Court to initiate a fresh investigation into the 2002 Gujarat riots. However, several charges were pressed against her in 2006 including hurting religious sentiments, forging evidence, and trespassing on burial grounds.
BJP also accused her of leveling allegations against erstwhile Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi without having concrete evidence. She was detained on Saturday on the basis of an FIR against her and two other former IPS officers, namely Sanjiv Bhatt and R B Sreekumar.
Why was Teesta Setalvad arrested?
The city crime branch registered an FIR against Setalvad, Sreekumar, and Bhatt on Saturday. The trio has been accused of abusing the process of law by conspiring to fabricate the evidence in an attempt to frame innocent people for an offense punishable with capital punishment in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Also read:Gujarat cops arrest Teesta Setalvad, she says 'I am not a criminal'
While dismissing the plea of Zakia Jafri, wife of slain former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed during riots, the apex court observed that "At the end of the day, it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create a sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge."
Setalvad, Sreekumar, and Bhatt were booked under sections 468, 471 (forgery), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence), 211 (institute criminal proceedings to cause injury), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture), and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The complaint is mainly based on the documents of proceedings and other materials to make out a case of cognizable offence. It drew on various submissions made before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Supreme Court to investigate the 2002 Gujarat riots cases and the Justice Nanavati-Shah Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Gujarat government to probe these cases. (With agency inputs)
