Mumbai: In what is seen as a relief for social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand, the Supreme Court today stayed their arrest till tomorrow in the Gulbarg Society fund embezzlement case.
Gujarat Police personnel on Thursday reached the Mumbai residence of social activists Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand to arrest them for the alleged embezzlement of money meant for the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The activist reportedly was not present at home when the police team reached her Mumbai residence, and some reports said that she had left town due to a family event.
Earlier in the day, the Gujarat High Court rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by Setalvad, Anand and others in the case of the alleged embezzlement of over Rs 1.5 crore.
Justice JB Pardiwala had on January 30 reserved the order on the bail petitions filed by Setalvad, Anand, Tanvir Jafri (whose father and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots) and Firoz Gulzar, a resident of the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad.
Teesta is facing charges that she misused the funds raised by her NGOs, Sabrang and Citizens for Justice and Peace, in the name of riots victims.
India TV had earlier reported that the social activist managed to divert nearly Rs 4 crore out of total collected Rs 10 crore donations in the name of riots victims and spent the sum of amount on her family.
Teesta's NGOs had got Rs 10 core donations from different sources, including overseas, for the construction of Museum of Resistance in Ahmedabad's Gulberg Society. The social activist ‘utilised' Rs 3.75 crore on her family's foreign trips.
The donations were amassed between 2008 to 2012.
