On Saturday, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad took so-called activist Teesta Setalvad into custody after an FIR for forgery was registered against her and others under several sections of the Indian Penal Code. Setalvad, who under the guise of her activism, was found influencing witnesses in the Gujarat riots case, was booked under IPC 468 (Forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document or record as genuine), 194 (Giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence) and other sections of the IPC alongside two others.
Teesta Setalvad is accused of tutoring witnesses and making false allegations in several cases related to the Gujarat riots 2002. She had gone all guns blazing in coercing and forcing critical witnesses in the infamous Best Bakery case in which two key prosecution witnesses, Yasmeen Bano Sheikh and Zaheera Sheikh had said that they were lured and misguided by Setalvad for giving false testimony.
The Best Bakery case
On March 1, 2002, a small outlet owned by one Sheikh family in Vadodara was attacked and burned down by a mob as part of the violence that fanned after the Godhra train burning. The enraged mob, which was accused of targeting the Muslim owners inside was responsible for the killing of 14 people, who had taken refuge inside the bakery, including three Hindu workers.
A special court in Mumbai charged nine out of the seventeen accused with life imprisonment after the case was moved out of Gujarat. However, it was noteworthy, when two of the witnesses from the family of Best Bakery owners, Yasmeen Bano Sheikh and earlier her sister-in-law, Zaheera Sheikh, appeared before different courts, they had said that they were lured and influenced by social activist Teesta Setalvad into giving false testimony against the accused.
During the long run of the case, taking back her original statements against the accused, Yasmeen Bano sought for her evidence to be recorded again and requested that her appeal to be considered as a petition. This came after the Gujarat High Court in December 2003 ruled in favour of the acquittal of all 17 people accused in the Best Bakery case by the trial court.
When two witnesses from the owner’s family turned hostile
However, in a 2004 ruling, The Gujarat High Court had dismissed the state government’s amended appeal in challenging the acquittal of the accused in the Best Bakery case and for seeking to conduct a trial again. While maintaining that the police failed to record evidence and testimony of key witness Zahira Sheikh, it underlined that the likes of Teesta Setalvad directly attempted to influence the testimony given by Sheikh.
“An attempt has been made by journalists, human rights activist Teesta Setalvad and advocate Mihir Desai to have a parallel investigating agency…that it is not permissible under the law,” the bench observed. In an interview with Aaj Tak, in early July 2003, she confessed, “Hamejaan ki parvah nahi hai kya?” (Will we not care for our lives?) which indicated that she was tutored to talk like this. It appeared that a person truly scared for his life would never talk as openly as candidly as Zahira did on Aaj Tak.
Years after Zaheera turned hostile, Yasmeen Bano Sheikh, her relative, became the star witness in this case. An exact repeat of the Zaheera Sheikh episode took place in 2011. Bano, in April 2011, moved to the Bombay High Court alleging that she was “lured and misguided” into giving false testimony against 17 accused persons by Teesta Setalvad of whom 9 were given life imprisonment in 2006, just like Zaheera Sheikh had alleged that Teesta forced her to name innocent persons as guilty in the same Best Bakery case.
Yasmeen Bano’s confessions
In the petition filed by Yasmeen Bano Sheikh in 2011, it was stated, “Yasmeen gave false deposition against the accused and identified them falsely at the behest and advice of Teesta Setalvad only in the false hope that she (Teesta) would help her financially.” It further claimed that Setalvad had made Yasmeen an instrument to achieve the ulterior goal.
Sheikh’s petition was amidst the pending appeals filed before the Bombay High Court on behalf of nine of the total 17 accused in the Best Bakery Case. In a submitted Affidavit, Yasmeen Bano said, “Teesta Setalvad made me give false testimony in the Best Bakery case by luring and misguiding me. I had written everything in the affidavit submitted to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court in June last year.”
While the rest of the Sheikh family, including Zaheera Sheikh, had already turned hostile and alleged that Teesta Setalvad lured them to lie, it was Yasmeen Bano who had become a popular contender against the 17 accused. Yasmeen also stated that her preliminary statements before the trial court were made on the orders of Setalvad.
Yasmeen also revealed that Setalvad, alongside her aid Rais Khan, promised to help her financially and convinced her that she should shift to Mumbai as her life was in danger in Gujarat.
