Ahmedabad Sessions Court on July 30 denied bail to social activist Teesta Setalvad and former IPS RB Sreekumar in a case related to alleged forgery and fabrication of documents to frame innocent people in the cases related to the 2002 Gujarat Riots.
Additional Principal Judge D.D. Thakkar rejected their bail pleas. The Judge delivered the order on the last day of service as he superannuated on July 31st.
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In his order, he noted that the they had defamed the then CM of Gujarat and also gained monetary benefits from a political party and from abroad.
“On perusing statement of witnesses, it appears that both these applicants and others were actively involved in the conspiracy against the then C.M. and Ministers, police officers as well as Bureaucrat etc (sic),” he observed in the order.
“Therefore, looking to the above facts and circumstance, even though the applicant is being a lady (Setalvad) and another is retired IPS officer (Sreekumar) and aged person, they are not required to be enlarged on bail (sic),” the order noted.
The court also held that the original complainant Zakia Jafri, who had named the then CM and others for a conspiracy of the 2002 riots, was “inspired and instigated” by the applicants accused of the present case.
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Earlier in the last week of June, Ms. Setalvad and Mr. Sreekumar were arrested by the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch following a First Information Report (FIR) against them under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 468 and 194 and 120 (B).
The IPC section 468 deals with forgery for purpose of cheating and 194 deals with giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction for capital offence while 120 (B) deals with criminal conspiracy.
During the hearing in the bail plea, the Gujarat Police in an affidavit has alleged that Ms. Setalvad and Mr. Sreekumar were part of a “larger conspiracy” carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel to destabilise the then BJP government led by Narendra Modi, the then Chief Minister of the State.
Citing statements of witnesses, the Police had submitted in the court that Ms. Setalvad was paid ₹30 lakh at Patel’s behest soon after the Godhra train burning incident of 2002 in which 59 pilgrims returning from Ayodhya were killed.
On former IPS Sreekumar, the Police submitted that he was a “disgruntled government officer” who “abused the process for damning the elected representatives, bureaucracy and police administration of the whole state of Gujarat for ulterior and personal purposes.”
Besides the two, another accused in the case is another former IPS Sanjiv Bhatt, who was also arrested and currently lodged in a jail serving a jail term in a separate case.
The Police crackdown on them came based on the FIR after the Supreme Court dismissed the plea filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots, seeking prosecution of then CM and others alleging a “larger conspiracy” behind the post-Godhra incident riots.
On February 8, 2012, the SIT filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Mr. Modi and 63 others, including senior government officials, citing lack of “prosecutable evidence” against them. The apex court on June 24 this year upheld the SIT’s report that closed the probe against Mr. Modi and 63 others.
