Gujarat: The Gujarat Police’s Anti-Terror Squad on Saturday took Mumbai activist Teesta Setalvad into custody and aim to move her to Ahmedabad, a lawyer familiar with the situation told Scroll.in.
The police want to question her in connection with the allegations she made in the 2002 Godhra train burning case.
A first information report has been filed against Setalvad, suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, former Gujarat Director General of Police RB Sreekumar and others under Sections 194 (fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence), 211 (false charge of offence made with intent to injure), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture), 468 (forgery), 471 and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code
“Sanjiv Bhatt, RB Sreekumar, Teesta Setalvad and others conspired to abuse the process of law by fabricating false evidence to make several persons to be convicted for an offence that is punishable with capital punishment thereby committing an offence punishable under section 194 of the IPC,” the FIR, accessed by Scroll.in, said.
The police arrived at her home in the city’s Juhu neighbourhood around 3 pm, a person in Setalvad’s office said. Later in the day, she was detained by the police and taken to the Santacruz police station in Mumbai.
The development came hours after Union home minister Amit Shah in an interview with ANI accused Setalvad of giving baseless information to the police about the 2002 Gujarat riots.
“The SC said Zakia Jafri worked on someone else’s instructions,” Shah said. “NGO signed affidavits of several victims and they didn’t even know. Everyone knows that Teesta Setalvad’s NGO [Citizens for Justice and Peace] was doing all this. When the UPA government came to power at that time, it helped the NGO alot.”
Citizens for Justice and Peace provides legal aid to survivors of the Gujarat riots. Setalvad is the organisation’s secretary.
On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed allegations of “larger conspiracy” levelled by Zakia Jafri, the wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the riots, against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior Gujarat officials. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat at that time.
In its judgement, the court read the statement made by the state government that Setalvad, a co-petitioner in the case, exploited the emotions of Zakia Jafri. The court dismissed Zakia Jafri’s plea challenging the report of a Special Investigation Team that had cleared Modi in the riots case. Scroll. In
