Govt trying to derail legal process in Gujarat riot cases: Teesta Setalvad

Teesta Setalvad, secretary of the human rights organisation Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), has refuted the Gujarat government’s allegation that she was involved in filing fabricated affidavits on behalf of the victims of the 2002 communal riots.

In a counter-affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, Setalvad has stated that the Gujarat government’s use of Rais Khan to get her arrested is intended to embroil her and her organisation in parallel legal procedures.

She has further stated that the state government was trying to dilute the concentration and attention on not just the ongoing trials in critical riot cases but “the historic investigation and prosecution … wherein the chief minister of the state and other influential persons are accused.”

She has further stated that the campaign to discredit, by intimidating and harassing those supporting the riot victims, the court’s efforts to ensure justice has to be addressed by an enquiry to find out how people had been planted to file applications that derail the legal process.

The Gujarat government had recently told the Supreme Court that witness accounts supported the allegation that evidence in the riot cases had been fabricated at the behest of Setalvad.  The Gujarat police had taken statements of the witnesses after Teesta’s former aide, Rais Khan, alleged in a complaint that he and Teesta had filed doctored affidavits in various courts where proceedings in the riot cases were going on.