The Gujarat High Court on Saturday rejected the bail application of Teesta Setalvad, accused of fabricating evidence in the 2002 Gujarat riots case.  The court also ordered her to surrender immediately.

The journalist turned activist was one of the first  to raise the cases of the victims in the riots, that provoked the Supreme Court to order a probe into the violence setting up a Special Investigating Team six years later.

Delivering the Judgment, a Bench of Justice Nirzar S. Desai pronounced the order for the activist in question to surrender on an immediate basis.

Setalvad who was arrested on June 25, 2022 by the Gujarat Police’s Anti Terrorism Squad from her Mumbai residence has been out on a bail ordered by the Supreme Court on September 2022 and was protected from an arrest since then.

She has been facing charges for allegedly fabricating the documents acting as an evidence in the 2002 Gujarat riots case and also implicating high government functionaries including then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the riots case.

Setalvad, a Padma Shri awardee, 62, runs a Non-Profit Organisation (NGO) Citizens for Justice and Peace(CJP), where she is a founding trustee and a secretary. CJP was established post 2002 riots in the Western state with the objective of providing legal counselling to the riot victims.

Setalvad’s family background is not of an usual Indian family, she hails from the family of legal luminaries, she is the grand daughter of country’s first Attorney General MC Setalvad and the great grand daughter of Chimanlal Harilal Setalvad, one of the three Indian members of the investigative body- the Hunter Commission that probed into the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.

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Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday slammed the Congress for its silence over the arrest of ADGP R B Sreekumar, former Gujarat IPS Sanjeev Bhatt and activist Teesta Setalvad in Gujarat riots case.

Vijayan criticized the Congress for its silence following the arrest of activist Teesta Setalvad, former Gujarat IPS Sanjeev Bhatt and ADGP R B Sreekumar by the Gujarat Police a day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit by the SIT to the state government, then led by Narendra Modi, in the violence.

On the day of the arrests, the Left questioned the Gujarat Police’s move, hours after Home Minister Amit Shah had questioned the role of Sreekumar and Setalvad in the allegations against the Modi government for 2002, the Congress reaction had been cautious.

Vijayan also accused that the Congress wanted to forget the Gujarat riots issue. Did the Congress ever support the legal battle of Zakia Jafri, the widow of former (Congress) MP Ahsan Jafri who was killed in the 2002 riots? Did Congress president Sonia Gandhi or any other Congress leader visit her and comfort her after the death of Ahsan? After the riots, the Congress brains advised Gandhi not to visit Zakia jafri, he asked.

Kerala CM also said that the reason was that Congress would lose the Hindu votes. During the last Gujarat Assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi conducted temple tours in that state. But he did not speak about Jafri or the riots, he also said.

Countering Vijayan’s charge, senior Congress leader V D Satheesan said the CM was spreading lies without an understanding of the facts. Quoting what Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala had said, Satheesan said Supreme Court verdicts should not be politicised.

Vijayan’s statement is being seen as the party’s indication to use the Gujarat riots issue to press its claims that the Congress is too weak-kneed over Hindutva to mount a challenge to the BJP in Kerala. The CPM has been trying to woo the minorities in the state with the Congress.

While the Congress accused Vijayan for helping the Sangh Parivar’s agenda in Kerala by focusing its attention on the Congress. The party has also called the attack on Rahul Gandhi’s office in Wayanad by CPM student wing SFI as proof of the same.

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