Teesta Setalvad, the self-proclaimed ‘activist’ has been arrested by the Gujarat ATS in a case of forgery, influencing witnesses, and the investigation of the Gujarat riots in 2002 that occurred after 59 Hindus were burned to death in a train in Godhra. Teesta Setalvad is accused of coaching witnesses and making ridiculous accusations in several cases related to the Gujarat riots in 2002.
One such case was the discovery of ‘mass graves’ in the aftermath of the 2002 riots. According to an affidavit referenced in the book ‘The Truth About Teesta Setalvad,’ Teesta concocted the narrative of the mass graves, and in order to break the ‘news’ and create sensation, she exploited her media connections and leveraged them to push her agenda.
The discovery of mass graves
In December 2005, media reports stated that a mass grave purportedly comprising the human remains of 21 Gujarat riot victims had been dug up along a riverbank in Lunawada village in Gujarat’s Panchmahal district. Rais Khan, an activist with Teesta Setalvad’s NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace, allegedly unearthed the graves without authorization from officials on the morning of December 27. Some of the victims’ families were also present with him.
Following the discovery of the remains, Teesta Setalvad appeared on CNN IBN to disclose the finding, causing a sensation across the country. Following that, the National Human Rights Commission took cognizance of the discovery and requested a report from the state government.
An FIR was also filed against twelve people for unlawfully exhuming remains from the municipality’s “official” burial place. The Lunawada Sanitary Inspector filed the FIR on the basis that the municipal officials stated that the remains were exhumed from their official burial location for unclaimed bodies. Rais Khan, a Citizens for Justice and Peace coordinator and Teesta Setalvad’s aide, was also named in the FIR for assisting locals in excavating these dead bodies. The other 11 accused were local tribals and victims’ families who had commenced the digging.
The truth behind the mass grave
The unveiling of the mass grave site caused a stir across the nation. The reality, however, was not what the public was being shown. According to an affidavit from a journalist cited in the book ‘The Truth About Teesta Setalvad,’ Teesta manufactured the narrative of the mass graves and, in order to create a sensation, she immediately used her media contacts and leveraged them to advance her goal.
The book details the wrongdoings of Teesta Setalvad, who was awarded the Padma Shree by the UPA government for her contributions in the public sphere. It demonstrates that, rather than working for the honour and well-being of the Republic, Teesta sought to undermine the laws of the nation and disrespect the country’s democratic and constitutional institutions.
According to the book, Teesta led the public into believing that the Gujarat government was involved in the mass burial of religious minority group members. An excerpt from an affidavit submitted by a journalist who was present during the exhumation of the graves is cited. The Journalist’s words show how far Teesta went to twist facts and manufacture lies in order to back her bogus claims.
The affidavit reads, “On 27th December 2005, I along with my camera team visited the Pandharwada village [Panchmahal District]. Rais Khan and about one dozen people from the village gathered at the site where bodies were suspected to be dumped. When the villagers started digging the area they found shallow graves.”
“Rais Khan immediately gave a call to activist Mrs. Teesta Setalvad. After hearing the news about discovery of mass grave she became impatient and talked to me also from Khan’s cell phone. She asked me to break the story right away. I told her that since we, (Sahara Samay), had been working on the story for a long time, we would do it in a proper manner with visual proof. I refused to do it her way. But Mrs. Teesta Setalvad was impatient. She did not wait. Within 15 minutes I got a call from my Sahara Samay Desk in Noida that Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai was breaking the story on CNN-IBN TV channel with Mrs. Setalvad going live on the air along with him,” the affidavit added.
The journalist further stated, exposing the conspiracy by Teesta and Rais, “I met Rais Khan and others, spoke to Mrs. Teesta and visited Pandharwada as a part of my Journalistic duty, however, at no point of my time during my interaction with Rais Khan and telephonic conversation with Teesta Setalvad, I was ever told by them that they have not taken permission from the authorities to exhume the bodies and that they knew that the bodies so buried by the police near Paanaam river at the outskirts of Lunawada town, were buried with proper procedure.”
The journalist, who has not been named but has been confirmed to be from Sahara Samay, has confirmed that Teesta and Rais were aware that the bodies buried by the police were buried with proper procedures and there was no element of confusion, but they chose to peddle their narrative by deceiving facts deliberately. Furthermore, the journalist has mentioned how Rajdeep Sardesai assisted Teesta in releasing the story without any validation.
The police had also said at the time that the remains were not a new discovery, as Teesta Setalvad’s NGO had claimed. Rather, the corpses were buried only after a post-mortem examination, and the perpetrators of the atrocity were identified and arrested. “The bodies buried in the grave near Panam river are those belonging to the victims of the Pandharwada massacre and each has been legally accounted for during investigation,” the then Director General of Police A.K. Bhargava said.
There are several other instances when Teesta, along with her aides, fabricated claims and tried to influence the proceeding in the case. She was accused of 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 details of this case can be read here.
