Lagatar24 desk
Ahmedabad, July 2: A court in Gujarat has sent activist Teesta Setalvad and former Director General of Police RB Sreekumar, arrested for alleged fabrication of evidence regarding the 2002 Gujarat riots cases, in a 14-day judicial custody on Saturday.
The two were produced before magistrate SP Patel after their police custody was ended. Special public prosecutor Amit Patel said that the police did not seek their further remand.
Setalvad and Sreekumar were arrested over a First Information Report (FIR) registered on June 25 by the Ahmedabad police crime branch.
Prosecutor Patel said, “The investigation officer did not ask for any further custody. They were hence sent in 14-day judicial custody.”
RB Sreekumar was arrested on June 25 whereas Teesta Setalvad the next day after being picked up by the Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad from her home in Mumbai.
Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who is currently serving life sentence in a custodial death case, is also an accused in the case. He will be brought to Ahmedabad on transfer warrant, as per the police sources.
The crime branch had registered the FIR against them a day after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the clean chit given by a Special Investigation Team to then chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.
The three have been accused of conspiring to fabricate evidence in an attempt to frame up innocent persons in Gujarat riots cases.
While dismissing the petition filed by Zakia Jafri whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the riots, the SC observed that “a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge.”
The police have pressed Indian Penal Code sections 468, 471 (forgery), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence), 211 (institute criminal proceedings to cause injury), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) against Teesta Setalvad, RB Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt.
