Activist Teesta Setalvad and retired DGP RB Sreekumar were taken into custody by Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad . The move came a day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit given to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in 2002 riots case.
Based on a complaint by police inspector DB Barad, the DCB on Saturday lodged an FIR accusing Sreekumar, dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt who is in prison in another case, and Setalvad on charges of forgery, conspiracy and other sections of the IPC.
The Gujarat anti-terrorist squad (ATS) team reached Setalvad’s Mumbai home in the afternoon and took her to Santacruz police station. “On a tip off provided by Ahmedabad police’s Detection of Crime Branch(DCB), a team of Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested accused Teesta Setalvad from Mumbai and she is being brought to crime branch office in Ahmedabad,” said senior police official of Ahmedabad City Police.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in an interview to a news agency on Saturday, said that the Setalvad-run NGO had given baseless information about the riots to police.
“I have read the judgement very carefully. The judgement clearly mentions the name of Teesta Setalvad. The NGO that was run being run by her – I don’t remember the name of the NGO- had given baseless information about the riots to the police,” he added.
The home minister also alleged that Setalvad’s NGO gave applications against BJP workers in every police station and the pressure by the media was so immense that every application was treated as truth.
Based on a complaint by police inspector DB Barad, the DCB on Saturday lodged an FIR accusing Sreekumar, dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt who is in prison in another case, and Setalvad on charges of forgery, conspiracy and other sections of the IPC.
Meanwhile, a team of Ahmedabad crime branch picked up retired DGP RB Sreekumar from his residence in Gandhinagar Saturday afternoon, and took him to crime branch headquarters Gaekwad Haveli in Jamalpur, Ahmedabad.
Sreekumar, Bhatt and Setalvad have been booked under sections 468, 471, 194, 211, 218, and 120B of the IPC. Sreekumar had accused the then state government of preventing the police from carrying out their duties during the 2002 Gujarat riots while Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court against then chief minister Modi concerning his role in the riots.
