Highlights
- Teesta Setalvad was part of a "larger conspiracy", says SIT
- SIT said the conspiracy was carried out at behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel
- Setalvad has been arrested, along with former IPS officers R B Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt
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, claimed an affidavit filed by the Gujarat police's Special Investigation Team before the sessions court.
Setalvad has been arrested, along with former IPS officers R B Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt, for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in Gujarat riots cases. "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," said the SIT's affidavit.
Ahmed Patel hatched the conspiracy
Citing the statements of a witness, the SIT said the conspiracy was carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel. At Patel's behest, Setalvad received Rs 30 lakh after the post-Godhra riots in 2002, it alleged. 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," the SIT further claimed.
Also Read | MP minister demands withdrawal of Teesta Setalvad's Padma award
Teesta Setalvad wanted a Rajya Sabha seat on a Congress ticket
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.
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, along with Sreekumar and Bhatt, 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.
The Gujarat police on Friday opposed activist Teesta Setalvad's bail application. Additional sessions judge D D Thakkar took the SIT's reply on record and posted the hearing on the bail application on Monday.
Also Read | Teesta Setalvad handed over to Ahmedabad crime branch by Gujarat ATS
