Teesta Setalvad, ex-Gujarat DGP Sreekumar arrested a day after SC ruling on 2002 riots
Ahmedabad: A day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit given to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in 2002 riots case, activist Teesta Setalvad and retired DGP RB Sreekumar were arrested by the Gujarat Police.
Based on a complaint by police inspector DB Barad, the DCB on Saturday lodged an FIR accusing Sreekumar, dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt who is in prison in another case, and Setalvad on charges of forgery, conspiracy and other sections of the IPC.
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) team reached Setalvad's Mumbai home in the afternoon and took her to Santacruz police station. "On a tip off provided by Ahmedabad police's Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), a team of Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested accused Teesta Setalvad from Mumbai and she is being brought to crime branch office in Ahmedabad," said senior police official of Ahmedabad City Police.
The action comes hours after Union Home minister Amit Shah, in an interview with news agency ANI, accused Setalvad of giving baseless information about the 2002 Gujarat riots to the police. Shah said Setalvad had an NGO which had submitted applications to police stations against BJP workers and they were sought as truth. "Teesta Setalvad's NGO was doing this," he said.
Mumbai Police spokesperson, DCP Sanjay Latkar said: "A team from Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Gujarat police went to the residence of social worker Teesta Setalvad who lives in the jurisdiction of Santacruz police station." The team had gone to her residence in connection with a case registered at DCB police station in Ahmedabad under IPC Sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 194 (giving or 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) and 120 (B)(criminal conspiracy).
Latkar added: "She is detained by Ahmedabad police in the above offence. They have intimated Santacruz police. They have taken her with them. She has given a complaint to Santacruz PS and they are processing her application."
Alleging that the Gujarat ATS assaulted her, Setalvad's lawyer Vijay Hiremath said: "We were not informed. They barged into (her house), they assaulted her and they've taken her."
Meanwhile, a team of Ahmedabad crime branch picked up retired DGP RB Sreekumar from his residence in Gandhinagar on Saturday afternoon, and took him to Crime Branch headquarters in Jamalpur, Ahmedabad.
Sreekumar, Bhatt and Setalvad have been booked under Sections 468, 471, 194, 211, 218, and 120B of the IPC. The FIR cites observations from the SC verdict to state: "At the end of the day, it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat alongwith others was to create sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge. The falsity of their claims had been
fully exposed by the SIT after a thorough investigation.
Intriguingly, the present proceedings have been pursued for last 16 years (from submission of complaint dated 8.6.2006 running into 67 pages and then by filing protest petition dated 15.4.2013 running into 514 pages) including with the audacity to question the integrity of every functionary involved in the process of exposing the devious stratagem adopted (to borrow the submission of learned counsel for the SIT), to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design. As a matter of fact, all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law."
Sreekumar had accused the then state government of preventing the police from carrying out their duties during the 2002 Gujarat riots while Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court against the then chief minister Modi concerning his role in the riots.
