From: [email protected] To:
From: PRASHANT Centre for Human Rights <[email protected]> Dear Friends, Greetings! The false and fabricated case against Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand and others has been in the news these past days The High Court of Gujarat has NOT taken into consideration the voluminous and irrefutable responses to all the baseless charges levelled at Teesta and the othersWe urge all our friends and collaborators to join us in taking a stand for Justice and Truth and to ensure that the fair name of Teesta, Javed and others is cleared as soon as possible We request you to sign the online petitions ( see links below) <https://www.change.org/p/citizens-call-to-sign?recruiter=87536130&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_twitter_responsive> and <http://linkis.com/gZKPY>. Or you can issue your own/organisation's public statement in support of TeestaSeveral public meetings/ demonstrations/press conferences are being organised all over the country in support of Teesta and others Yesterday a well-attended demonstration was held in Mumbai and this afternoon (February 16th 4 pm) a Press Conference is being held in New Delhi at the Press ClubDo join / participate / organise one of these in your area/ city as soon as possible The articles below are also self-explanatory Let's rally together now before it's too lateIn solidarityFr CedricFr. Cedric Prakash sjDirector "PRASHANT" (A Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace) Hill Nagar, Near Kamdhenu Hall, Drive-in Road, Ahmedabad - 380052,Gujarat, INDIA Tel :+91 (0)79-27455913/66522333Cell : 9824034536Fax:+91 (0)79-27489018Blog: www.humanrightsindia.in February 13, 2015 Press Release As trustees of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), we have full faith in our fellow trustee, Javed Anand, and secretary, Teesta Setalvad, and we stand by them during these difficult times. We have no doubt whatsoever regarding their honesty and integrity in the dealings of CJP. We are convinced that there is no factual basis to sustain the charge of embezzlement, and this has been asserted by the independent auditors of CJP. I.M. Kadri, Nandan Maluste, Cyrus Guzder, Alyque Padamsee, Anil Dharker, Shakuntala Kulkarni, Rahul Bose, Cedric Prakash http://scroll.in/article/the-real-story-behind-the-corruption-charges-against-activist-teesta-setalvad/?id=658902 The real story behind the corruption charges against activist Teesta Setalvad The real story behind the corruption charges against act...The Gujarat government wants activist Teesta Setalvad to be interrogated in custody about charges of embezzling donations collected to build a communal violence mus... | | | | View on scroll.in | Preview by Yahoo | | | | | On Thursday, the Gujarat High Court adjourned the hearing of a case filed by Zakia Jafri, which seeks to have charges framed against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 59 others for their alleged involvement in the 2002 riots. A lower court had previously dismissed her case challenging the report of a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team stating that there is no prosecutable evidence against Modi. The case was adjourned because the Gujarat government said it needed time to come up with a response. "We need time to go through the voluminous records of the case," the state prosecutor argued. Jafri's lawyers said the government could be issued a notice and could then be given time to reply, but the court said it would hear the matter again on April 11. Zakia Jafri is no stranger to waiting. On 28 February 2002, her husband Ehsan Jafri, a Congress politician and former Parliamentarian, was dragged out of his home in Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, to be hacked and burned to death. Sixty nine people died in Gulberg Society that day. The 2002 riots in Gujarat have the distinction of being the only instance of communal violence for which some amount of justice can be said to have been dealt. One hundred and seventeen perpetrators have been convicted, including a serving minister in the Gujarat government. Because of the Supreme Court, some of the most heinous cases during the riots have been reopened for investigation. Yet that hasn't brought justice for all victims of the 2002 violence. Like Jafri, many believe the pogrom in 2002, of which Gulberg Society was only one incident, would not have happened without chief minister Narendra Modi's tacit approval. If Jafri's legal efforts succeed, the powerful chief minister and the Bharatiya Janata party's candidate for the position of India's prime minister could be brought to trial on up to 15 charges . So far, the Gujarat government and the BJP have used the SIT report to claim that the chief minister has been given a "clean chit" by the country's criminal justice system. "Nothing will come of the case," said Harshad Patel, a BJP spokesperson in Ahmedabad told Scroll.in. "The clean chit has come, now the courts will also decide on that." The backlash Zakia Jafri does not speak to the media these days, but the source of her courage and patience is well-known. The source works from an office in Mumbai's Juhu area. To reach the office, one has to walk past guards of the Central Reserve Paramilitary Force. It is a small but furiously organised office. At the heart of this space is activist and former journalist Teesta Setalvad, who is among the founder-trustees of the two organisations that run from here, Sabrang Trust and the Citizens for Justice and Peace. Citizens for Justice and Peace was set up on 1 April 2002, in the immediate aftermath of the Gujarat riots, to promote communal harmony. It is among the few organisations that provides legal aid to the survivors of the 2002 riots and has been instrumental in obtaining the 117 convictions that have come so far. Its sister organisation, Sabrang Trust, was established after the 1992-'93 communal violence in the city then known as Bombay. Right now, Setalvad is battling heavy fire from Ahmedabad. In January, the Ahmedabad police registered a First Information Report against Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand for allegedly cheating residents of Gulberg Society of money collected in 2008 by Sabrang Trust and Citizens in for Justice and Peace. The money was collected to convert Gulberg Society into "a museum of resistance". The call for donations explained the idea: "For nearly six years now, more than a hundred thousand survivors of independent India's state-sponsored carnage in the western Indian state of Gujarat have been denied dignified acknowledgement of, or reparation for, the magnitude of indignity and violence they suffered. With the BJP's recent electoral victory in the state, the pain and humiliation of the victim survivors has been further exacerbated. A quiet yet dignified and firm resistance to this state callousness and impunity lies at the heart of this idea of resistance." This FIR was registered in response to a nine-month-old complaint by some former residents of Gulberg Society. The complainants had said they were not being given the money collected in their name, even as they lived in penury. Anand and Setalvad had responded to the complaint in May 2013, clarifying their accounts and the nature of donations raised and for what they had been utilised. The Ahmedabad Police's Crime Branch did nothing about the complaint for nine months, but suddenly registered an FIR days after Setalvad and Zakia Jafri announced their decision to challenge the lower court's order in the Gujarat High Court, asking that charges be framed against chief minister Modi. The idea of a memorial to victims of communal violence is seven years old now. "We conceived the idea in 2007 when the Supreme Court cases were not moving," Setalvad told Scroll.in. "There was a lot of despair on the part of the survivors. The idea was that we would think of a memorial for all victims of communal violence. So from Kashmiri Pandits to Gujarat 2002, etc, and it was an ambitious project." The FIR claims that donations were asked for and received by both trusts, but Setalvad claims it was only Sabrang. The CJP, Setalvad explains, works mainly to give legal aid to riot victims, whereas Sabrang is the general trust to work on communal harmony. At the time the memorial was proposed, there were no takers for the flats in Gulberg Society, which is in a Hindu-dominated area in the main city of Ahmedabad. The Sabrang Trust proposed to raise money through donations to purchase the properties from residents at market rates. Residents in turn promised not to sell their property until Sabrang was able to raise enough funds. However, due to rising land prices across Ahmedabad, Sabrang realised they would not be able to raise enough money through only donations. They gave up the idea altogether in 2012. "By 2012 it was clear that land prices had gone up by four times, so we would have needed an amount which was now impossible through donations," said Setalvad. "Our organisation incurs an expense of Rs 5 lakhs a month, out of which just Rs 3.5-4 lakh is on legal fees. So we directed the 4.5 lakhs collected for the Gulberg museum to legal aid, with written permission of the donors." She said she was willing to produce those permission letters in court, but declined to reveal the names of the donors to Scroll.in. Sabrang then informed Gulberg Society about the decision, which Society accepted. At the end of 2012, the Society passed a resolution stating that owners could sell their property to people of any religion or race, as was the case since it was built in 1963. This resolution was rendered void a little over half a year later, when the Gujarat government dredged up an old law that prevents citizens of a community from selling their property to people outside the community. The Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act of 1986 was meant to protect people fleeing their homes from communal violence from making a hasty decision of disposing of their property and later regretting it. Around 40 per cent of Ahmedabad is covered by this act. In August 2013, eight months after the Gulberg Society resolution to sell their property to whomever residents pleased, and four months after Zakia Jafri filed her first case against the SIT's closure report, the Gujarat government suddenly extended the application of the law to, among other places, the Gulberg Society and Naroda Patiya. "Gulberg and Naroda Patiya are two pockets in completely Hindu-dominated areas, which means they are obviously not going to be able to sell to their own community," said Setalvad. Muslims don't want to live in the Hindu areas for the fear of risking their lives in a possible future pogrom. Setalvad calls the law illegal and says that it violates the right to own and sell property. "You're tying their hands and by doing so, you're getting them to fall at your feet," she said. "Their case is still pending in the court. This law and its use in Gujarat ought to have been a matter of independent investigation by the media in this country." She added, "I am alleging openly that this is being done to try and push the survivors of Gulberg Society to a wall, in the hope that maybe one or two of them in desperation might bend to the will of the state and turn hostile even in their own criminal trial." No one has yet been convicted for the Gulberg Society massacre. As to the museum, there were no papers, and no transaction between Citizens for Justice and Peace, Sabrang Trust or the residents of Gulberg Society, which Setalvad says, indicates quite clearly that there can be no possible case of cheating. "What is cheating?" Setalvad asked. "You can say it is cheating if I have taken money from you or property from you. Neither has happened. There is no ingredient here to amount to that." In fact, the original complaint about the cheating was not filed by representatives of the Society, but had been typed by a few members on the society letterhead without authorisation. The authorised representatives of the society released an affidavit (.pdf) on March 13, 2013, to categorically deny that they had any conflict with Setalvad or her NGOs. "We state that the NGO has already authorised the society to sell the property last year and therefore there cannot be any grievance against the NGO as the society has not parted with any part of the land," said an open letter by Sabrang. "Moreover, the donors don't feel cheated and therefore the signatories, who have not parted with a single pie, have no locus to file any such complaint against the NGO." One of the main charges in the FIR is that the two organisations collected funds from foreign donors for the memorial, but had not given the money to the intended recipients. It alleges that the foreign donations Sabrang Trust received between April 10, 2007 and February 20, 2014, amounting to Rs 2.62 crores, were intended for the memorial. It also said that Citizens for Justice and Peace received foreign donations of Rs 1.31 crores. In a 41-page public affidavit, Setalvad and Anand show excerpts from their accounts to prove that the total amount raised for the museum did not exceed Rs 4.5 lakhs, only Rs 50,000 of which came from foreign donors. The Sabrang Trust received only Rs. 1.33 crore in foreign funds during this period, the bulk of which went towards legal aid. Citizens for Justice and Peace received Rs. 1.15 crores. The Ahmedabad crime branch, they say, manipulated their bank statements to arrive at the figures of Rs 2.62 crores and Rs 1.31 crores. They two have also filed a case in the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the FIR and sought interim relief from the Supreme Court. Setalvad alleges that this FIR is a conspiracy of the BJP government in Gujarat. "The desire of the Gujarat government is to somehow paralyse this organisation financially by getting all these malafide allegations made," said Setalvad. "A large part of our donations is to legal aid." Harsh Patel of the Gujarat BJP denied this. "The government has nothing to do with this case," he said. "If she has cheated the residents of Gulberg, then we will find out in the court. The truth will come out." Taking on Narendra Modi None of this has yet convinced Teesta Setalvad withdraw her support for Zakia Jafri and her campaign to bring Narendra Modi to trial. The noise around the Gulberg museum case makes better copy than the tedious process of repeated appeals in courts, but the timeline of the controversy created around the memorial intertwines closely with that of Zakia Jafri's petition against the SIT report. On February 8, 2006, Jafri filed a 119-page chargesheet alleging that Gujarat's state machinery was involved in the riots. It took two years and a Supreme Court order for the complaint to be recognised. The court ordered certain cases to be reopened and investigated by an Special Investigative Team comprising five officers, some of whom were replaced over the years. The SIT filed a closure report in 2012, but failed to share its findings with the complainants. The Supreme Court had to step in again and ordered them to file the report with a local court, which the SIT did only in February 2013. The closure report, which the defenders of Narendra Modi interpret as a clean chit for the chief minister, merely says that despite the evidence gathered by the SIT, which is documented in its voluminous report, there is not enough to merit a case against him. But Raju Ramachandran, an amicus curiae appointed by the Supreme Court to monitor the process, disagreed, saying that the evidence against Modi was too significant to be judged at a pre-trial stage. In a parallel track, the first complaint about the Gulberg Society memorial was filed in March 2013, a month before Jafri and Setalvad filed their protest petition in April, and in August that year, the Gujarat government extended the Disturbed Areas Act to Gulberg Society. "Narendra Modi is very upset with [Teesta Setalvad] because she is going after him," said Kingshuk Nag, author of a biography on the Gujarat chief minister. "She is a hardcore Gujarati, and though she grew up in Bombay, she is from a highly regarded family. A lot of other people have not been as active as she has. She has been proactive in doing relief and rehabilitation work with victims, women and following up with Modi. Therefore he is taking advantage of the fact that she is in charge of these large organisations." While the merits of the Gulberg Museum case will be decided in court, this is not the first time that Setalvad and Citizens for Justice and Peace have been targeted by the Gujarat government. In the years after 2002, as it became clear that Citizens for Justice and Peace was going to continue to support riot survivors in their fight for legal justice, the Gujarat police filed FIR after FIR against Setalvad. All of them were found to be spurious and were quashed by the courts. The Gujarat government has had very little to do with any of the convictions in the 2002 pogrom cases. Of the cases pursued by the Gujarat government, only five per cent resulted in conviction. Of the cases pursued by the SIT or moved to courts in the neighbouring Maharashtra state, the conviction rate has been 39 per cent. Some criticise Setalvad for focusing so heavily on the figure of the chief minister that it has taken away focus from convicting perpetrators. "It is a fair argument that Setalvad is obsessed with a political battle against Modi," said Ashok Malik a senior journalist and BJP observer. "It is valid to say that he was the chief minister and he failed to control the riots. But to confuse a valid political case against him, with a legal case is a weak point." Setalvad dismisses this criticism. "If it was the case that there was no material against Modi, then I think the Supreme Court of this country would not have ordered an investigation by the SIT. The fact that the SIT report could not find conclusive evidence, but the amicus curiae appointed by the court read the evidence differently, is obviously something the critics are not aware of. I don't think the other perpetrators will get lost in the battle. The charges are not just on Narendra Modi but on 59 others as well." RB Sreekumar, who was Gujarat's chief of intelligence in the months directly after the riots and who submitted a 200-page affidavit listing the circumstantial evidence against Modi, also disagrees with the idea that targeting Modi is unnecessary. "Narendra Modi's plan is to keep the complicity level as low as possible, so that it doesn't reach him," he said. That is why Setalvad thinks it is important to have Narendra Modi and the Gujarat government face trial. "We believe they are perpetrators themselves, which is why we decided to assist Zakia Jafri," she said. "It's still up for grabs; it's not been decided legally." II. http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/others/This-is-an-attempt-to-cripple-us-financially/articleshow/46237196.cms Javed Anand, who along with his wife Teesta Setalvad faces arrest by the Gujarat police for alleged embezzlement of funds, clarifies his stand in an exclusive interview. The mud-slinging apart, this is an attempt to cripple us financially. For the past eight months, our accounts have been frozen and we have been struggling to pay our staff, said Javed Anand, who along with his wife Teesta Setalvad, faces arrest by the Gujarat police in a case of alleged embezzlement of funds. "We expected this from the day we started in Gujarat in 2002. We had no illusions about what we were up against. The NDA was in power, and Narendra Modi was CM in Gujarat. The nature of our work is such that in 2004, the Supreme Court directed that Teesta be given security by the CISF." The Supreme Court has stayed the arrest of the couple till February 19. On Thursday, the Gujarat High Court had rejected their anticipatory bail application, saying their custodial interrogation was in public interest. But pointed out Javed, everything related to the case was documented and in the Gujarat police's possession. "They have our bank statements, the bank statements of our trusts, resolutions of trustees, our IT returns. We have also given them details of cash expenditure which run into thousands of pages. All they need to do is study them and see if their allegations have any basis. We can't tamper with those documents. So what do they want from our custodial interrogation?" Had the repeated references in the media to their lifestyle--alleged by the Gujarat government to have been sustained by funds collected for Gujarat riot victims--created any mistrust among the victims they worked with? "Not at all," replied Javed. "In fact, the day our application was rejected by the Gujarat High Court, our lawyers called to say that many of the survivors had called them to express their support." "The fact that we've survived since our bank accounts were frozen is because of concerned citizens supporting us," added Javed, "not only those we approached but also complete strangers who said they believed in our work." Defending their choice of a prominent Congressman as their lawyer in the Supreme Court, Javed said that they had approached Kapil Sibal as a top lawyer, not as a Congressman. "He has appeared for us earlier too. Besides, Prashant Bhushan and Indira Jaising were present in court too for the case." How could they afford Sibal? "Many senior lawyers have appeared for us, from Kamini Jaiswal, to Harish Salve to Anil Dewan. We've never been in a position to them a rupee, and they've never mentioned it." In fact, said Javed, with their accounts frozen, they had not been able to pay their Gujarat lawyers either. "Yet, despite the propaganda against us, they have never spoken about withdrawing from the case." Giving a detailed rebuttal of the charges against them, Javed pointed out that the complainant, Raees Khan, who was their employee from 2002 to 2007, had started allegations against them only in 2010, when the Special Investigation Team set up by the Supreme Court to investigate the Gujarat riot cases started its work. Citing the case of Zahira Shaikh, witness in the Best Bakery Case, who had made similar charges against Teesta, Javed pointed out that the Supreme Court had found the charges baseless and sentenced Shaikh to a year's imprisonment for perjury. All the lawyers they had spoken to have concluded that the case was "completely mala fide", added Javed. "Thanks to our efforts, 117 people have been given life imprisonment for perpetrating the 2002 Gujarat mass killings, including Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani. Then there's the Zakia Jafri petition which accuses Narendra Modi himself as chief minister at that time. Now that the CM has become PM, we know the attack is going to get even more deadly. But we are not going to pack up and go home." ====================Stop Harassing Teesta Setalvad Dear Friends, It is time for us to take a stand. Read the entire communications to understand and make your own judgement. In solidarity,warm regards, Dolphy D'souza ----- Original Message -----From: RamTo: [email protected]: Friday, February 13, 2015 11:19 AMSubject: [haqmein] FW: For urgent publication and circulation: Citizens' Statement inSolidarity with Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand From: India Resists Sent: 13-02-2015 10:57 Subject: For urgent publication and circulation: Citizens' Statement inSolidarity with Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand Dear Friends, A citizens' statement aginst vindictive targeting of Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand was initiated on India Resists website yesterday that evening that already received more than 1400 signatures. We are forwarding you the same for urgent publication and wider circulation. While the text of the statement is reproduced below this email, the citizens' statement and all the signatures can be accessed at this url: http://www.indiaresists.com/sign-petition-citizens-in-solidarity-with-teesta-setalvad-and-javed-anand/ This is a clear case of vindictive targeting of Teesta and Javed, who have been exposing the role of Narendra Modi regime in the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 and have been fighting for justice to the victims. A detailed backgrounder on the cases leveled at them and the selective manner in which they have been pursued by the Gujarat govt can be found here -http://www.indiaresists.com/the-case-against-teesta-setalvad-or-the-gujarat-model-of-vindictive-action/ We urge you to publish it urgently in your publications and websites, and help us in raising voice against the vindictive BJP regime where criminals like Amit Shah, Banzara, Maya Kodnani are all roaming free while those seeking justice are victimized. With best regards, Editorial Team, INDIA RESISTS www.indiaresists.com **************************************************************** Citizens Statement in Solidarity with Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand We are shocked to learn of the rejection of the Anticipatory bail applications of Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand by the Gujarat High Court. Media stories suggest that the bail applications have been turned down because Setalavad and Anand were “not cooperating with the investigations” and that prima facie “funds were used for private purpose”. It is a matter of record that they have submitted their original bank statements, balance sheets and audited accounts that completely disprove the allegations. Does this amount to non-cooperation or prima facie evidence of wrong-doing? We stand with Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, and their quest for justice for the victims of 2002 violence, which has turned them into a target of Gujarat government’s ire. We condemn this witch hunt and the false and malicious propaganda being circulated against them. http://www.indiaresists.com/sign-petition-citizens-in-solidarity-with-teesta-setalvad-and-javed-anand/ -- ----- Original Message -----From: geeta seshuTo: feministsindia ; [email protected] ; [email protected]: Friday, February 13, 2015 12:19 PMSubject: [haqmein] Stop Harassing Teesta Setalvad FYI http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31818&articlexml=Cursor-Stop-Harassing-Teesta-Setalvad-13022015004070 Feb 13 2015 : The Economic Times (Mumbai) Cursor - Stop Harassing Teesta Setalvad TK Arun Indian democracy has gained significantly from the actions of the activist couple. They deserve to be hailed as heroes, not harassed as criminals Offence is the best form of defence, it is true. But that still leaves such defensive use of offence pretty offensive on occasion, especially when it is employed by the all-powerful state against an individual. As in the case of lawyer-activist Teesta Setalvad, who has been waging a long and difficult battle against the perpetrators of the 2002 Gujarat riots and finds herself at the receiving end of charges of embezzlement and worse. It is welcome that the Supreme Court has stayed the arrest of Ms Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand, after the Gujarat High Court denied them anticipatory bail in a case arising from a charge that the couple diverted money meant for riot victims. Policemen from Gujarat landed up at their home in Mumbai. In India, communal riots had been very common in the seventies and the eighties. There was a lull, in the nineties, after intense rioting in the wake of the demolition of the Babri mosque.Some sporadic riots broke out towards the end of the decade. Then came the killings in Gujarat, in 2002. Riots have been many , conviction of those who killed, raped and pillaged during the course of the riots, few. And this is where the Gujarat riots stand out. Over 120 people have been convicted so far, including Maya Kodnani, a minister in the state government then headed by Narendra Modi. These convictions took place only because of valiant persistence on the part of victims and activists.Their vigilance and activism ensured that the Supreme Court monitored investigations and trial proceedings.And foremost among the activists stands Teesta Setalvad. The charge of embezzlement of funds had been raised against her in the past, the case investigated and dropped when found false. The case has been raked up again, in the background of Setalvad and her Campaign for Justice and Peace pursuing the appeal against the lower court order that gave a clean chit to chief minister Narendra Modi, based on the report of a Special Investigation Team. The charges against her are that the money collected by the trust for the benefit of the victims has been used to pay personal credit card bills and that a sum exceeding Rs 1 crore has been diverted from the fund. The credit card bills certainly contain personal items of expenditure, but the money taken from the trust was used to pay for travel between Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad for fighting the cases and related expenses, and for paying their salaries as employees of the trust.The diversion of funds of the order of magnitude of a crore turns out to be a simple case of the money having been put in a fixed deposit in the name of the trust to earn a higher rate of interest, before being returned to the trust's savings account, along with the interest earned. Setalvad and Anand run two trusts and their accounts are meticulously audited by reputed chartered accountants. There is absolutely no call to arrest anyone to investigate the veracity of the charges against the activist couple. The sole purpose of the case and the threat of arrest is to con sume their time and energies in defending their own liberty, instead of pursuing the legal battle relating to the riots.The cause of securing justice in the Gujarat riots and the larger cause of advancing Indian democracy have both gained significantly from the actions of the activist couple. They deserve to be hailed as heroes, not harassed as criminals. On May 16, 2014, the Supreme Court of India set aside a conviction by the Gujarat High Court of six Muslims for alleged involvement in the attack on the Akshardham temple in September 2002. The Court named police officers responsible for picking up and framing six innocent people, torturing them and fabricating evidence. The government of Gujarat has not so far acted on this damning verdict. If the state's policing energies have to be spent on anything, it is on acting against these policemen who violated the Constitution, their oath of office and maimed the lives of six people, not on tormenting human rights activists who advance the cause of justice and democracy . http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31818&articlexml=Stop-Harassment-of-Teesta-Setalvad-13022015020026 Feb 13 2015 : The Economic Times (Mumbai) Stop Harassment of Teesta Setalvad Though the Supreme Court stayed the arrest of human rights activist Teesta Setalvad in an alleged case of embezzlement, and will hear the petition against the Gujarat High Court's refusal of protection against possible arrest today , the whole case can be seen as the targeting of an activist involved in cases relating to the 2002 carnage in Gujarat. Indeed, even the very threat of arrest in such a case seems an extreme measure and even harassment. A cursory look at the timeline of the allegations and cases against Setalvad and her associate and husband reveal a pattern of state intimidation, even as cases like the 2002 killings at the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad continue to drag on. The charge against Setalvad, misappropria tion of funds meant for a museum at the Gulberg Society site, arose after a person complained to the Crime Branch in Ahm edabad. It was later found the complaint had been sent on a forged letterhead, and when documents were presented show ing that no wrongdoing had taken place, the Crime Branch dropped the investigation. But the case has still been raked up again and again. Justice for communal riot victims remains elusive in India, on the whole, marring our justice delivery system. But Gujarat 2002 has seen some measure of justice: many perpetrators, including a then-minister in the Modi regime, were convicted.Though all the victims haven't had that justice, much of what was delivered happened due to the courage of victims and activists like Setalvad in pursuing the cases despite interminable delays and apparent state antipathy . The judiciary must ensure that allegations like this are probed quickly , and do not become a tool for harassment and intimidation of activists or anyone seeking justice against the powerful or the state. http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31818&articlexml=ANTICIPATORY-BAIL-REJECTED-BY-GUJARAT-HC-SC-Restrains-13022015002007 Feb 13 2015 : The Economic Times (Mumbai) ANTICIPATORY BAIL REJECTED BY GUJARAT HC - SC Restrains Arrest of SetalvadNew Delhi:Our Political Bureau A bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu directs listing of her plea for Friday The Supreme Court has restrained Gujarat and Mumbai police from arresting social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand after their anticipatory bail was rejected by the Gujarat High Court on Thursday . A bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu directed the listing of her plea for Friday after her counsel Kapil Sibal brought the matter before it. Lawyer Prashant Bhushan too asked the court to intervene in the matter. A team of Gujarat Police and Mumbai Police reached Setalvad's home after her bail was rejected.The police teams enquired of her family and staffers on the whereabouts of Setalvad, who was not at home.Setalvad and her husband h ave b e e n fighting for the victims of the communal carnage that engulfed Gujarat following the burning of a train in Godhra on February 27, 2002. They have been accused of allegedly misappropriating over `14 lakh, collected through their NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace, for setting up a museum at the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad, where about 69 people were killed during the communal carnage. Setalvad and her husband were booked by the crime branch of Gujarat Police on charges of cheating, breach of trust and under provisions of the IT Act, following a complaint filed by 12 residents of the society after construction of the proposed `Museum of Resistance' was put in cold storage citing various reasons. The Gujarat Police has accused Setalvad, Anand and three other office-bearers of the NGO of transferring money from its bank account to clear their credit card bills from 2009 to 2014. Setalvad has dismissed the charges saying she had used her credit card for work-related travel and accused the Gujarat Police of manipulating the credit card details to frame her. The case has triggered allegations that Setalvad was targeted for being in the fore-front of the fight against the state government on behalf of the 2002 riot victims.CPM in a statement demanded that the Gujarat government withdraw the “concocted case“ against Setalvad and “stop harassing her“. Setalvad hails from the Mumbai family of lawyers that included her g reat-g randfather MC Setalvad, India's first and longestserving attorney-general, and his father, CH Setalvad who was a vicechancellor of University of Bombay and a member of the Hunter Commission that probed the Jallianwala Baugh massacre.
