Court rejects Setalvad's plea: A sessions court in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on Thursday (July 20) rejected Teesta Setalvad's plea seeking discharge in the case of alleged fabrication of evidence related to the 2002 Gujarat riots.
While rejecting the application, additional sessions judge AR Patel asked the prosecution and defense to “open the case” (start trial proceedings) from July 24.
The Gujarat government had opposed her plea stating that she abused the trust of the victims of the riots, while also implicating innocent persons. The Supreme Court had granted bail to Setalvad on Wednesday in the case after the Gujarat HC denied her relief.
Setalvad and two others - former state Director General of Police R B Sreekumar and former Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt - were arrested by the city crime branch in June last year on charges of forgery and fabricating false evidence with an intention to implicate Gujarat government functionaries in the 2002 riots cases.
Sreekumar’s discharge plea was earlier rejected by Justice AR Patel, and Bhatt has not sought relief yet.
What did Gujarat government say in the court?
The state government, in its written reply, said that Setalvad drafted affidavits in the names of the victims of riots aiming to implicate innocent ones, including then chief minister Narendra Modi and state ministers.
The state government’s reply was based on the statements of witnesses Rais Khan Pathan who earlier worked at Setalvad's NGO Citizen for Peace, Narendra Brahmbhatt who had claimed that late Congress leader Ahmed Patel had paid her Rs 30 lakh.
The government also underlined the ‘contradictions’ in the affidavits of the riot victims and which were prepared by Setalvad, and their statements recorded before the courts.
"There is sufficient evidence and reasons to file a chargesheet against the accused," the government affidavit said.
Setalvad’s lawyer rejected the allegation and claimed that the witnesses had signed the affidavits which were submitted before different courts. These affidavits, therefore, can not be considered as `fabricated evidence', the defense said.
Even testimonies of witnesses were recorded by the courts based on the signed affidavits, it pointed out.
The case against Setalvad and others was registered following a judgment by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, on a petition of Zakia Jafri who had alleged the existence of a larger conspiracy behind the 2002 post-Godhra communal riots.
The Supreme Court judgment of June 2022 upheld the clean chit given to (now prime minister) Narendra Modi and other state functionaries and observed that some people kept “the pot boiling” of the case “for ulterior design” and “all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with the law”.
(With PTI inputs)
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