2002 Gujarat Riots: Activist Teesta Setalvad Moves HC To Quash FIR In Evidence Fabrication Case

Teesta Setalvad was charged with forgery and fabrication of evidence with the alleged intention of implicating Gujarat government officials in the 2002 Gujarat riots cases.

The Supreme Court on July 19 granted bail to activist Teesta Setalvad in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence in relation to the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Social activist Teesta Setalvad has filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court to dismiss an FIR lodged against her by the Ahmedabad crime branch. According to the FIR, she fabricated evidence in the 2002 Gujarat riots cases.

Recently, a sessions court denied her discharge plea in the same case, but the Supreme Court granted her bail after the Gujarat High Court refused to provide her relief. On Monday, Setalvad submitted a plea in the HC seeking to quash the FIR, and the court is expected to schedule a hearing in the coming days.

In June 2022, Setalvad, along with two others — former state Director General of Police R B Sreekumar and former Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt — were arrested by the city crime branch. They were charged with forgery and fabrication of evidence with the alleged intention of implicating Gujarat government officials in the 2002 riots cases.

The FIR was registered against them following the dismissal of a plea by Zakia Jafri, whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the riots. Setalvad has been charged under sections 468 (forgery) and 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence) of the Indian Penal Code, among others.

The investigation into the case was later handed over to a Special Investigation Team (SIT).

According to Zakia Jafri's plea, a "larger conspiracy" was afoot behind the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, involving Narendra Modi, who was the Chief Minister back then. However, the court upheld the SIT's clean chit to Modi and 63 others.

In its judgment, the Supreme Court highlighted that a coordinated effort was made by certain disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat and others to create false sensations by making baseless revelations. The SIT had thoroughly investigated and exposed the falsity of their claims. The court emphasized that all those involved in abusing the legal process should be held accountable and subjected to lawful proceedings.

The violence on February 28, 2002, at Ahmedabad's Gulberg Society resulted in the death of Ehsan Jafri and 67 others, a day after the Godhra train burning incident that claimed 59 lives. The riots that followed caused the death of 1,044 people, mostly Muslims. According to details provided by the Central government in May 2005, 254 Hindus and 790 Muslims lost their lives during the post-Godhra riots.