The Gujarat government has told the Supreme Court that investigation prima facie shows that activist Teesta Setalvad played a “major role” along with other persons in enacting a “larger conspiracy” for “oblique purposes” at the behest of a “senior leader of a political party”.
Ms. Setalvad is accused of fabricating evidence to frame high functionaries of the Gujarat government in a case related to the 2002 riots. The State’s response, in a 13-page affidavit, was filed in response to her plea for bail.
“It is submitted that ocular and documentary evidence collected by the present SIT (constituted to investigate the present FIR) during this investigation provide ample grounds to support the allegation of larger conspiracy by the present applicant and others. The same clearly established a prima facie case against the petitioner for an offence which serious enough and entails a maximum punishment for life,” the Gujarat government said.
The affidavit referred to witnesses statements which said Ms. Setalvad was in Ahmedabad within weeks of the riots and had meetings with several political functionaries and other co-accused. Witness statements before the Magistrate show that meetings were also held in New Delhi in which she and other accused persons had participated, the affidavit said.
The State government alleged the conspiracy was hatched during these meetings, and they made separate and independent offences.
It said “false charges and false evidence” were manufactured invoking the names of persons other than those stated by the victims in various riot cases. Witnesses were asked to file “pre-typed, pre-affirmed affidavits” before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was probing the riots cases.
“Systematic efforts were made to fabricate oral and documentary evidence,” the affidavit alleged.
The State said there was material to suggest that various criminal acts of omission and commission were done to “achieve political, financial and other material benefits by means of executing the conspiracy”.
Ms. Setalvad had met with the “political leader”, who was not identified in the affidavit, and received large amounts of money. “Such money was not part of any relief related corpus,” the affidavit said.
The government urged the apex court not to give Ms. Setalvad any “special treatment” by entertaining her bail plea. It said the Gujarat High Court had already posted Ms. Setalvad’s appeal for bail on September 19 after issuing notice to the government. The Supreme Court should not allow her to bypass the High Court by entertaining her plea for bail. If done, this would become a dangerous precedent based on which other accused persons would circumvent the High Courts to approach the apex court directly. The State objected to her bail, saying she wielded “substantial influence” over witnesses, by using money or threats, since 2002.
The State said it was only a ruse on the part of the petitioner to connect the registration of the FIR in the present case with the Supreme Court’s observations in the Zakia Jafri case judgment on June 24.
Ms. Setalvad was arrested in Mumbai on June 25 by the Gujarat ATS a day after the Supreme Court dismissed allegations of "larger conspiracy" levelled by Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots, against former Chief Minister Narendra Modi and over 60 senior State officials.
In its judgment in the Jafri case, the apex court had snubbed petitioners like Ms. Setalvad, who had fought the case on the behalf of Ms. Jafri for decades. The top court had said the "protagonists of quest for justice sitting in a comfortable environment in their air-conditioned office may succeed in connecting failures of the State administration at different levels during such horrendous situation, little knowing or even referring to the ground realities and the continual effort put in by the duty holders in controlling the spontaneous evolving situation unfolding aftermath mass violence across the State".
