Teesta Setalvad, ex-DGP Sreekumar denied bail in Gujarat riots case

Teesta Setalvad and former DGP RB Sreekumar are behind bars since last month for allegedly fabricating documents to frame innocent people in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Updated on: Jul 30, 2022, 22:10:28 IST

By HT News Desk

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Activist Teesta Setalvad and former DGP RB Sreekumar were denied bail by a sessions court in Ahmedabad on Saturday. The duo are behind bars since last month for allegedly fabricating documents to frame innocent people in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Additional principal judge DD Thakkar said both their pleas are rejected.

Setalvad and Sreekumar were arrested by the city crime branch about a month ago on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) registered against them under sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction for capital offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Setalbad and Sreekumar were from their residences in Juhu and Gandhinagar, respectively on June 26, days after the Supreme Court ruled out a larger conspiracy behind 2002 Gujarat riots and expressed the need to proceed against those “disgruntled officers of the State of Gujarat and others” whose “coalesced efforts was to crate sensation by making false revelations

In its affidavit, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe the case said the activist and top police officer were part of a larger conspiracy carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel to destabilise the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Narendra Modi.

The probe team further said Setalvad had been paid ₹30 lakh at Patel's behest soon after the Godhra train burning incident of 2002. Sreekumar was a "disgruntled government officer" who "abused the process for damning the elected representatives, bureaucracy and police administration of the whole state of Gujarat for ulterior purposes", the SIT added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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HT News Desk
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