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The Gujarat Police claimed that Teesta Setalvad was part of a “larger conspiracy” carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel to dismiss the BJP government in the state after the 2002 riots.
Activist Teesta Setalvad was arrested for alleged fabrication of evidence in the 2002 Gujarat riots case (PTI photo)
The Gujarat Police on Friday opposed activist Teesta Setalvad’s bail plea, claiming that she was part of a “larger conspiracy” carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel to dismiss the BJP government in the state after the 2002 riots.
“The political objective of the applicant (Setalvad) while enacting this larger conspiracy was dismissal or destabilisation of the elected government….She obtained illegal financial and other benefits and rewards from rival political party in lieu of her attempts to wrongly implicate innocent persons in Gujarat,” the police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) stated in an affidavit filed before the sessions court in Ahmedabad.
Citing the statements of a witness, the SIT said the conspiracy was carried out at the behest of late Ahmed Patel. At Patel’s behest, Setalvad received Rs 30 lakh after the post-Godhra riots in 2002, it alleged.
Activist Teesta Setalvad was arrested, along with former Director General of Police RB Sreekumar, for alleged fabrication of evidence in the 2002 Gujarat riots case.
READ | ‘I was roughed up, abused’: Activist Teesta Setalvad calls her arrest illegal
In its affidavit, the SIT further claimed that Setalvad used to meet the leaders of a “prominent national party in power at that time in Delhi to implicate names of senior leaders of the BJP government in riot cases.”
It cited another witness to claim that Setalvad in 2006 had asked a Congress leader why the party was giving “chance to only Shabana and Javed” and not making her a member of the Rajya Sabha.
The SIT also opposed the bail application on the grounds that the investigation against Setalvad is still underway and if released, she may attempt to intimidate witnesses and tamper with evidence.
Additional sessions judge DD Thakkar took the SIT’s reply on record and posted the hearing on the bail plea on Monday.
Last month, a day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit given to then chief minister Narendra Modi and others in Gujarat riots case, state police arrested Setalvad.
She was booked under IPC sections 468 (forgery) and 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction for capital offence) among other offences.
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