Gujarat riots: Probe team says Congress leader Ahmed Patel plotted against Narendra Modi

The Gujarat police on July 15, Friday, opposed activist Teesta Setalvad's bail application. They said that she was part of a "larger conspiracy" carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel to dismiss the BJP government in the state after the 2002 riots.

In an affidavit filed by police's Special Investigation Team before session court, it mentioned that Teesta had also recieved monetary and other benefits "in lieu of implicating innocent persons" in Gujarat.

Additional sessions judge DD Thakkar took the SIT's reply on record and posted the hearing on the bail application on Monday.

"The political objective of the applicant (Setalvad) while enacting this larger conspiracy was dismissal or destabilisation of the elected government. She obtained illegal financial and other benefits and rewards from rival political party in lieu of her attempts to wrongly implicate innocent persons in Gujarat," said the SIT's affidavit.

Citing witness statements, the SIT added that the conspiracy was carried out at the behest of Patel and alleged he gave Setalvad Rs 30 lakhs.

The SIT also claimed that Setalvad used to meet the leaders of a "prominent national party in power at that time in Delhi to implicate names of senior leaders of the BJP government in riot cases."

SIT citing another witness claimed that Setalvad in 2006 had asked a Congress leader why the party was not making her a member of Rajya Sabha and was favouring Shabana and Javed.

Gujarat Anti-Terrorist squad arrests activist

Teesta was promptly arrested after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit given to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in Gujarat riots.

Setalvad has been arrested, along with former IPS officers RB Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt, for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in Gujarat riots cases.

They have been booked under IPC sections 468 (forgery) and 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction for capital offence) among other offences.

Published on: Saturday, July 16, 2022, 10:59 AM IST