Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 25: As a fall-out of the Supreme Court dismissing the Zakia Jafri petition levelling “Larger Conspiracy” charge against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others and its indictment of some of her old associates, the Gujarat police on Saturday arrested the social activist Teesta Setalvad and the former Gujarat additional director general of police RB Sreekumar on the charges of providing false information to the police on 2002 Gujarat communal riots.
The police action came within hours of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah showering heaps of appreciation on Modi for “enduring false allegations” linked to the 2002 Gujarat riots silently for 19 years because the legal process was on. “Modi ji endured false charges in silence for 19 years, nobody did a dharna,” Shah said taking a swipe at the Congress which has been demonstrating for days over the interrogation of senior party leader Rahul Gandhi in a money laundering case.
“I have closely seen Modi ji enduring this pain, facing the allegations despite being on the side of truth and because the judicial process was underway he did not speak. Only a man with a strong heart can do this,” Shah said.
A three-judge bench of the apex court while dismissing the petition on Friday had also indicted Teesta Setalvad, Sreekumar and another former Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt for “exploiting” the sentiments of the widow of the slain former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri in prolonging the case for some “ulterior designs.” “Antecedents of Teesta Setalvad need to be reckoned with and also because she has been vindictively persecuting this lis [dispute] for her ulterior design by exploiting the emotions and sentiments of Zakia Jafri, the real victim of the circumstances,” the top court said in its order.
“All those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law,” the judges said, surmising that the appeal was filed under “dictation of someone,” indicting Setalvad, Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt.
The Gujarat ATS on Saturday detained Setalvad from her house in Mumbai in connection with a foreign fund case related to her NGO. Teesta Setalvad ‘s NGO had provided information about the 2002 riots to the police and her name has been mentioned in the Supreme Court judgment while upholding the SIT’s clean chit to Modi.
Teesta Setalvad’s lawyer said the police barged into her house and assaulted her. First, the activist was taken to Santa Cruz police station. From there she was taken to Ahmedabad city police station.
“I have read the judgment very carefully. The judgement clearly mentions the name of Teesta Setalvad. The NGO that was being run by her – I don’t remember the name of the NGO- had given baseless information about the riots to the police,” Amit Shah had stated.
Soon afterwards, the Ahmedabad crime branch police moved in and picked up Sreekumar who at the time of the 2002 riots was the state additional director general of police. He is known for his stand on the 2002 Gujarat riots against the then Government of Gujarat with Modi as the chief minister.
A case was registered against former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, Sreekumar and Teesta Setalvad by Gujarat Police for furnishing false information about the Gujarat riots. As per Gujarat Police, the accused, through Zakia Jafri, put several petitions in court and gave false information to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) head and others. The SIT was constituted at the request of Zakia Jafri by the Supreme Court and functioned under its direct supervision probing into some of the heinous crimes during the Gujarat riots.
While rejecting Jafri’s petition for a fresh investigation alleging “larger conspiracy” by Modi and 60 others including some bureaucrats then, the Supreme Court had stated that the appeal was “devoid of merits.”
A total of 68 people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed in the riots triggered by the burning of a train coach in which 59 pilgrims perished in February 2002. A decade later, the SIT report, exonerated Narendra Modi, citing “no prosecutable evidence” in the Gulbarg Society case.
In his interview Amit Shah had stated, “In a democracy, PM Modi presented an ideal example of how the Constitution should be respected by all political persons. Modi ji was also questioned, but nobody protested, and (BJP) workers from across the country did not gather in solidarity with Modi ji. We cooperated with the law. I was also arrested. There was no protest or demonstration,” he said.
The Union Home minister denied that there was a delay on the part of the Gujarat government in calling in the army to deal with riots and noted that former Punjab Police chief KPS Gill, a celebrated top cop, had termed the state government’s action “prompt and neutral.”
He also attacked Congress over anti-Sikh riots in 1984, saying that so many Sikhs were killed “but nothing was done for three days.” “The Gujarat government did not delay in anything. When the Gujarat Bandh was declared, we called the Army. The Army needed some time to reach. There was not even a day’s delay by the Gujarat government and this was also appreciated by the court,” Shah said.
