The Gujarat Police on Sunday formed a Special Investigation Team to investigate Mumbai-based activist Teesta Setalvad, former Gujarat Director General of Police RB Sreekumar and former Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt for alleged forgery in cases related to the 2002 Gujarat riots, The Hindu reported.
On Sunday, the Gujarat Police arrested Setalvad and Sreekumar after a first information report was filed against them based on a complaint filed in Ahmedabad by Police Inspector Darshansinh B Barad. While the complaint also named Bhatt, the former IPS officer is serving life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case.
A court in Ahmedabad on Sunday remanded Setalvad and Sreekumar to police custody till July 2, PTI reported.
The Special Investigation Team will be headed by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad’s Deputy Inspector General Deepan Bhadran and will also comprise Superintendent of Police in the ATS Sunil Joshi and Deputy Commissioner of Police Chaitanya Mandlik.
“The investigation is underway and we are procuring documents submitted by the accused before the Commission of Inquiry, SIT formed by the Supreme Court to investigate 2002 riots cases, and different courts,” Mandlik said. He added that the affidavits and other documents that the accused persons had submitted constituted the main basis for the FIR.
Mandlik said that the FIR has been filed on the basis of the Supreme Court’s observations that all those “involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with as per law”.
On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed allegations of a “larger conspiracy” levelled by Zakia Jafri, the wife of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior Gujarat officials in connection with the 2002 riots. Modi was then the chief minister of Gujarat.
Ehsan Jafri was among 69 persons who were killed when a mob went on a rampage in Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society on February 28, 2002, setting fire to homes.
In its judgement, the court read a statement made by the state government that Setalvad, a co-petitioner in the case, exploited the emotions of Zakia Jafri. The court dismissed Zakia Jafri’s plea challenging the report of a Special Investigation Team that had cleared Modi of involvement in the riots.
The action against Setalvad came hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah in an interview with ANI on Saturday accused her of giving baseless information to the police about the riots.
On Saturday, Mary Lawlor, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, expressed concern about action taken against Setalvad.
“Teesta is a strong voice against hatred and discrimination,” she said. “Defending human rights is not a crime. I call for her release and an end to persecution by Indian state.”
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