I/IV. A report from a friend of hers who had accompanied her from Mumbai to Ahmedabad.
<<I was present at Teesta Setalvad's house from around 4 PM. The ATS was in her bedroom. Teesta was sitting on her floor surrounded by ATS officers. Her lawyer was reading the FIR. I asked was there a warrant. Teesta sai "NO". She also said in front of all of the officers, "They pushed me to the wall and held me and hurt me", she showed me the black bruise on her left upper arm. She had received a call in the morning. Teesta said, "I received a call from Noida CISF asking about how many people I had in my security. I told them I don't answer questions on my security over phone." Teesta said, " I was told Gujarat ATS will just question me at Santa Cruz Thana. Then they gradually revealed they will take me to Gujarat". I asked was anyone from Mumbai Police there. Teesta signalled at a few cops in uniform. They were from Mumbai Police. Teesta then asked the ATS officer who had identified himself as Jasmine, " to follow procedure. You have said it's detention. Not arrest. Then I will go to my Thana and register a complain that you are kidnapping me without a warrant" MJ Pandey and I Rukmini Sen insisted that as it wasn't an arrest we feel deeply worried about our friend Teesta Setalvad. We will accompany her in her car. After much negotiation ATS agreed that we can all go in Teesta's car. Two ATS who told us they were sub inspectors sat in the car. At Santa Cruz , officer Jasmine, Patel and the lady subinspectors tried their best to not let Teesta enter the Thana. They pushed her and intimidated her. Teesta however made her way into the Thana and spoke to the media aloud that they were not letting her register her complaint. And that ATS Gujarat wasn't carrying any warrant for arrest. That the arrest/ detention was illegal. She gave a written complaint at Santa Cruze police station. The Mumbai police followed all procedure and took down the names of all the ATS officers who had come there. We reached Crime Branch at Ahmedabad around 6 am. It is important to mention that Teesta's phones were seized without any punchnama at Nirant, her home in Juhu Once we entered Gujarat we made a stop at a restaurant called papillon. Teesta asked for her phones. Two were hers and one her colleague's. She insisted she would speak with the IO otherwise not move from the restruant. It was past midnight by now. There was sign of few people on the road. After much negotiation ACP Chudasama, the IO from crime branch came on the phone. She spoke to him and said they can't take her phones without punchnama. The phones were switched off, handed over to our other friend not to Teesta with a word that we will not use them. Teesta told the IO and the officers from ATS that she will cooperate as she had all this while but they must follow procedure. When they asked her if she wouldn't use the phones why did she want them. She said because that is her right to privacy as a citizen and human rights activist and it was their duty to follow law and procedure. Why would they want to keep her phones if they were not using them? Why was it unusual to ask for one's phones? Why was it unusual in their eyes to being asked by a citizen to follow procedure? On the 26 the of June, at 6 am we reached Crime Branch, Ahmedabad. One of the officers, I will confirm his name and mention it later, it wasn't the women or Jasmin or Patel ... Pushed our friend Pandey and abused Teesta with a " bhosdi nee" while taking all the phones. Teesta calmly said, " You are showing your real colours now. You are trying to intimidate me". All three of us remained calm and asked " why was he behaving like that? What has triggered such a behavior". This happened in the atrium/ courtyard of Ahmedabad crime branch. Teesta and I walked up to the first floor. I was asked to leave but I requested to stay till the IO arrives. We sat in a room with seven women cops sitting with us. Teesta asked if RB Sreekumar was also there. We got to know he was sleeping in the next room. In another hour we saw Sreekumar going to the washroom. Teesta called out his name. He peeped inside. They said hello to each other. She asked about his health. He asked when did she come in. It struck me he was an old and frail man. Shaken physically but in spirit strong and smiling. At 8 am ACP Chudasama was in office. He met Teesta. She made a verbal complain about how her detention was illegal. How her officer had pushed her, abused her, seized her phone. She ended her complain with this is a political case. " My arrest is illegal". Teesta told ACP Chudasama that she would cooperate in all investigations as she has always done but all questioning must happen after she is presented in front of the magistrate. That is the correct procedure she asserted. She also requested ACP to meet her lawyers when they visit her. That he should tell them the exact court room and they must be allowed at the magistrate's office. I was present in this meeting. I managed to sit with her till they took her for covid test and medical to SV hospital, Ahmedabad. Teesta managed to show her bruise to the press for the first time there. She was brought back to crime branch. At around 2 PM she was brought to the metropolitan court, Ahmedabad. RB Sreekumar was brought in around the same time. It was a closed door hearing. No press was allowed. She was constantly surrounded by large teams of crime branch and Gujarat police. Teesta was calm. At every juncture she reminded the police, the crime branch officials, the prosecution that this is a political case. She asserted everytime she was pushed or pulled or touched that she is not a criminal. In the evening the magistrate asked her if she wanted another round of medical test. She said she did indeed want. I accompanied her with magistrate's permission. She was taken to civil hospital. A lady doctor examined her. Asked the orthopedic doctor to examine her. X rays were done. We were told there was no fracture. Teesta thanked every doctor. She was given two strips of painkillers for her hand. She accepted them with a thanks. The lady doctor measured her bruise/ injury with her fingers and mentioned the same in her medical report. We were neither shown what was written nor were given a copy. They did take Teesta's thumb print for her identification. Before the order came in and while we were still in the hospital I received these two links from a friend. Posting them here. Please see the time and date and save/ record. https://twitter.com/the_hindu/status/1541030859301601282?s=20&t=KpGM20_F0cWWLwS2YsCI0g https://zeenews.india.com/india/teesta-setalvad-case-sit-formed-to-probe-activists-role-in-spreading-misinformation-on-gujarat-riots-2478153.html This is before the magistrate gave the order. The order which some of you must have received. Must be available on Live Law said first 5 days of remand and then 6 days of remand Remand till 2 ND of July Teesta then was taken back to Crime Branch. I don't know whether she has a bed to sleep. The rooms where we had sat ( two rooms) had a table , some chairs and a bench. Sreekumar had told us he had slept in a similar room The order also said she could meet a family member and a lawyer everyday. I came back to Mumbai last [27th] morning. I texted Javed Anand, at 7.45 PM to ask how Teesta was doing. He said he has been running behind the lawyers and had found no time to meet her. I asked if there was a development. He sent me this text. I request you to read it carefully and read the news links I received before the order. My message exchange with Javed And, her husband and partner in CJP- Hi Javed, How are you? How is Teesta? Javed:Me ok. Have not been able to see Teesta so far. Still chasing lawyers. Rukmini: Any new development?Javed: Chudasama no longer IO. A special SIT appointed to investigate. I am worried for my friend - Teesta Setalvad, a foot soldier of Indian Constitution. Please tell me what to do. What should we do? I want to know what will opposition do? Is protecting and standing up for civil rights activists not the job of political parties? Has congress lost it's spine completely? Only left parties , lawyers and civil rights activists have come out in the open. PS: For all journalists- Santa Cruz Police station has names of Gujarat ATS officers. You must have accessed Teesta's complain by now.>> (The (unedited) testimony above is from: Ms Rukmini Sen, a Mumbai-based journalist.) [Javed, her husband, could meet her on 27th. She is okay. For a brief report: < https://sabrangindia.in/article/teesta-doing-okay-so-far-police-custody-javed-anand >.] II. *Radical Socialist Statement: The Arrest of Teesta Setalvad* RS strongly condemns the *manner* and the *purpose* behind the latest action taken against the courageous and longstanding human rights activist Teesta Setalvad and her organisation, the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP). It is no coincidence that this action immediately followed the shocking Supreme Court judgement (unsigned by a three judge bench) that not only rejected the appeal for an investigation into the high-level conspiratorial circumstances surrounding the 2002 Gujarat pogrom but effectively directed the authorities to "bring to book" those upholding the Ehsan Jafri cause. First, an Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) from Gujarat was deployed to pick up Setalvad from her home in Mumbai, Maharashtra although the charges made in its First Information Report (FIR) in no way come under the brief of the ATS or justify its deployment. Second, she was whisked away without a necessary warrant. Third, she was roughed up and bruised in her home and three mobile phones were illegally seized. Fourth, in the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate's Court when no such order had been passed, the proceedings were nevertheless held "in camera", keeping the media and interested and concerned members of the public out. Crime branch cops were posted to ensure this by intimidating onlookers. The detention and arrest of Teesta Setalvad (along with the indictment of the former Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP), R.B. Sreekumar and of the police officer Sanjiv Bhatt since both had earlier testified to Modi's involvement in promoting the riots) serves specific and more general purposes. The motivation for now setting up a Gujarat controlled Special Investigation Team (SIT) is to go after the CJP and crush it as well as to make a case against Setalvad's presumed 'political masters'. This would fit in with the larger political ambition of the BJP to eliminate or subordinate all opposing political parties. In reality this is an act of sheer revenge by Modi, Shah and other cohorts in the Gujarat government of 2002 and after, to punish Setalvad et al for their steady and continuous pursuit of justice for the victims of that pogrom which had helped to criminally indict some wrong doers and to highlight the negligence and worse of that Gujarat government. Clearly, a message is being sent out to other civil liberties groups and activists resisting the communal behaviour and ideology of the Sangh Parivar and this BJP government that you had better watch out! An active and justice-loving citizenry willing to carry out independent fact-finding on any issue that may expose the iniquities and brutalities of state or central authorities will not be tolerated. WE MUST STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE CJP AND CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUPS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ACROSS INDIA WE MUST CONTINUE OUR WORK TO EXPOSE THE INJUSTICES PERPETRATED BY THIS GOVERNMENT AND STAND AGAINST THE SANGH PARIVAR'S RACIST AND FASCISTIC PROJECT OF CREATING A HINDU RASHTRA. WE REMAIN UNBOWED! III. May also look up: AA. 'Whither India? After Teesta, It's Mohammad Zubair - Co-founder of the AltNews, Arrested for a Four Years Old Tweet' at < https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10228473229040916&id=1387786704 >. BB. 'Whither India? The Illustrative Case of Teesta Setalvad Arrest: A Brief (Updated) Account' at < https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10228455655201581&id=1387786704 >. IV. 'Condemned by Innuendo: Some Questions on the SC Order That Led to Teesta Setalvad's Arrest' by Madan Lokur (a former Supreme Court judge) at < https://m.thewire.in/article/law/supreme-court-order-teesta-setalvad?utm=authorlistpage >. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/greenyouth/CACEsOZjg3Au%2BHQHuwXcdVSRo6UMk2MZzq3TctR%3DZ0O93OGjzzQ%40mail.gmail.com.
