On 30th July 2022, a sessions court in Ahmedabad in Gujarat rejected the bail application filed by Teesta Setalvad and former IPS officer RB Sreekumar. They had filed this application after their arrest in the case of fabrication of evidence related to the 2002 riots case.
Gujarat | Bail application of social activist Teesta Setalvad and former IPS officer RB Sreekumar rejected by the Sessions Court.
— ANI (@ANI) July 30, 2022
They were arrested in June, in relation to a case on her NGO
Additional Sessions Judge DD Thakkar denied Setalvad and Sreekumar’s bail applications on the day of his retirement, a few hours before his farewell program. The court withheld its decision last week after hearing arguments from attorneys for Setalvad, Sreekumar, and the prosecution. The judge said that the arrests were made after the Supreme Court order in Zakia Jafri case, and the SIT is investigating the allegations of fabrication of evidence by the accused.
Teesta Setalvad, R B Sreekumar and former Gujarat cop Sanjeev Bhatt were arrested by Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) police last month after Supreme Court had rejected a plea by Zakia Jafri, wife of deceased former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, seeking probe against Narendra Modi claiming a larger conspiracy into the Gujarat riots after the Godhra massacre. In the judgement, the Supreme Court said that Teesta Setalvad had exploited the emotions of Zakia Jafri. The court had also said R B Sreekumar and Sanjeev Bhatt had given false testimonies accusing CM Modi of conspiring to trigger the riots.
Following the Supreme Court order, the Gujarat Police had filed a case Teesta Setalvad, Sanjiv Bhatt and R B Sreekumar under sections 468 (Forgery for 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), 211 (False charge of offence made with intent to injure), 218 (Public servant framing incorrect record), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the India Penal Code. With this, Setalvad and Sreekumar were arrested, while Bhatt was already in jail after his conviction in a custodial death case.
In the FIR, it was said that the accused had tried to create a sensation by making false claims about the Gujarat riots. The falsity of their claims had been fully exposed by the SIT after a thorough investigation, the FIR said. It added that the proceedings have been pursued for the last 16 years, including with the audacity to question the integrity of every functionary involved in the process of exposing the devious stratagem adopted to keep the pot boiling, obviously for ulterior design.
