Gujarat ATS detains activist Teesta Setalvad, takes her to Ahmedabad a day after SC verdict on 2002 riots

 Gujrat ATS detains Teesta for 'faking 2002 riots evidence'

Source: TOI , OI

The Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the SIT clean chit to then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots case. The apex court said, "all those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law".

The FIR naming Teesta Setalvad and the two former IPS officers had been registered by the Ahmedabad crime branch on Saturday, the Gujarat anti-terrorism squad (ATS) detained activist Teesta Setalvad in Mumbai and was taken to Ahmedabad. She was taken from her residence in Juhu to the police station in connection with a case relating to her NGO. And arrested ex-DGP RB Sreekumar on Saturday in connection with an FIR filed in Ahmedabad (The FIR lodged by inspector DB Barad of the Ahmedabad city crime branch against Setalvad and the two ex-IPS officers allege that they fraudulently passed off forged documents as genuine "with intent to procure conviction of capital punishment" against those whom the SIT had cleared.) against them and Sanjiv Bhatt, alleging "criminal conspiracy, forgery and placing false evidence in court to frame innocent people" in the 2002 Gujarat riots case. Bhatt, who is in Palanpur jail (Banaskantha, Gujarat) awaiting trial in a case of planting drugs on a suspect, will be arrested after the police obtain a transfer warrant from the court, sources said.

Ex-DGP RB Sreekumar was taken into custody in the evening after being summoned to crime branch headquarters at Gaekwad Haveli for interrogation earlier

Her lawyer Vijay Hiremath alleged that the police were applying charges under Section 468 (forgery and cheating) and 471 (Using as genuine a forged), 194 (Giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of the capital offence.), 211 (False charge of offence made with intent to injure), 218 (Public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture) and 120B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

A police officer in Mumbai said Ahmedabad police detained Setalvad from her residence in Santacruz and took her with them after intimating local police. "She also gave a written complaint to Santacruz police station (when she was taken there) and they are processing it," said the official.

Setalvad's complaint alleged that Gujarat police "barged into" her compound, did not show her a copy of the FIR or warrant against her, and there was a "big bruise" on her left hand. "I fear seriously for my life," her complaint added.

Setalvad, on her part, lodged a complaint with Santacruz police station in Mumbai claiming that the "arrest" was illegal and she apprehended a threat to her life. "Teesta Setalvad has been picked up by the Gujarat ATS from Mumbai," a PTI source in the Gujarat ATS said.

It comes a day after a three-judge bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar, upheld the Special Investigation Team or SIT's 2012 clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Gujarat riots case, and said that Setalvad, co-petitioner in the case, exploited the emotions of Zakia Jafri.

Setalvad specifically stands accused of "conjuring, concocting, forging and fabricating facts and documents, including witnesses' testimonies, and influencing and tutoring witnesses". The allegations are based on the cross-examination of Zakia Jafri during the Gulbarg massacre trial. Setalvad's NGO supported Jafri, who had filed the petition alleging a larger conspiracy behind the riots, throughout her legal battle.

Bhatt has been accused of making false claims in 2011 that he was present at a meeting at Modi's then residence on February 27, 2002. He alleged that the erstwhile CM asked bureaucrats to go slow on rioters.

The FIR also charges Bhatt with furnishing forged documents "in order to implicate various persons". The complaint states that the SIT probe revealed he colluded with people who had vested interest, and NGOs and political functionaries who wanted to settle scores by "framing innocent individuals". Bhatt allegedly received incentives for this, the FIR states while making a case for a detailed investigation.

Sreekumar is accused of making false claims in his affidavits before the Godhra inquiry commission. The then DGP had alleged that he was illegally issued verbal orders that he recorded in a "semi-official diary"

"Antecedents of Teesta Setalvad need to be reckoned with and also because she has been vindictively persecuting this lies [dispute] for her ulterior design by exploiting the emotions and sentiments of Zakia Jafri, the real victim of the circumstances," the apex court said in its order.

The case pertains to what came to be known as the Gulbarg Society incident, in which 68 people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed in the riots triggered by the burning of a train coach in which 59 pilgrims perished in February 2002. A decade later, the SIT report, exonerated Narendra Modi, citing "no prosecutable evidence" in the Gulbarg Society case, ANI reported.

On Saturday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah slammed Setalvad after the Supreme Court dismissed the plea challenging clean chit to the Prime Minister.

"I have read the judgement very carefully. The judgement clearly mentions the name of Teesta Setalvad. The NGO that was run being run by her - I don't remember the name of the NGO- had given baseless information about the riots to the police," Amit Shah, in an exclusive interview, told ANI.