The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in Gujarat on Saturday, June 25 took journalist and activist Teesta Setalvad into custody, a day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit given to Prime Minister Modi by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), during the Gujarat riots in 2002. Zakia Jaffri, wife of slain Congress MLA Ehsan Jaffri, and Setalvad had moved the Supreme Court alleging a larger conspiracy in the riots. However, the court dismissed the plea, terming it “devoid of merit”.
Following the SC judgment, an FIR has been registered alleging conspiracy and that Teesta, IPS officers Sanjiv Bhatt and RB Sreekumar fabricated evidence in the case. According to the FIR, she has been booked under IPC sections 468 (Forgery), 471 (Use of document or electronic record which he knows or has reason to believe to be a forged), 194 (Fabrication of false evidence), 211 (False charge of offence made with intent to injure), 218 (Public servant framing incorrect record) and 120 (Criminal conspiracy).
The FIR states that, "The final report submitted by the SIT indicates that Teesta Setalvad had conjured/concocted/forged/fabricated facts and documents and/or evidence including fabrication of documents by persons who were prospective witnesses of the complainant. It is not only a case of fabrication of documents, but also of influencing and tutoring the witnesses and making them depose on pre-typed affidavits..."
The Supreme Court bench also came down on Setalvad, saying that she “exploited” the emotions of Zakia Jaffri for personal gain. In its ruling, the bench said that Setalvad’s antecedents must be examined as she is “vindictively pursuing” the case for “her ulterior design by emotionally exploiting Zakia Jaffri, the real victim of the circumstances”.
The raid against Setalvad in her Mumbai residence came hours after a scathing interview that Home Minister Amit SHah gave to news agency ANI. In it, he alleges, "The affidavits of several victims (of the Gujarat riots) were signed by an NGO run by Teesta Setalvad, and the victims did not even know about this. Her NGO had gotten support from the then Union government run by the UPA. All this was done only to target Narendra Modi." He added, “Everyone knows Zakia Jaffri acted on someone else’s behest,” and suggested that Setalvad was working in collusion with the Congress-helmed UPA government at the time.
In court on Friday, Amit Shah alleged that Teesta Setalvad gave “baseless information” regarding the riots to the police. Setalvad runs the NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace, formed for those who were targetted during the 2002 violence. However, there are allegations that she and her husband Javed Anand embezzled the money meant for the victims, and allegedly collecting about Rs 6-7 crore in the name of riot victims in a massive collection drive between 2007-2104, through advertisements that appeared in a magazine owned by them.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the SIT's clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 riots, and said there is “no title of material to support the allegation that violence after the Godhra incident was a pre-planned event" owing to the “conspiracy hatched at the highest level in the state”.
Zakia Jafri had challenged the SIT's clean chit to 64 people, including PM Modi who was the Gujarat Chief Minister at that time, and alleged a larger conspiracy. The bench upheld the decision of a magistrate in accepting the final report submitted by the SIT and rejecting the protest petition filed by Zakia Jafri.
Congress leader and former MP Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed at Ahmedabad's Gulberg Society during violence on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train burning that claimed 59 lives. The riots that it triggered killed 1,044 people, mostly Muslims.