Teesta Setalvad, Sanjiv Bhatt & Sreekumar forged evidence to implicate innocent: Complaint

A day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots cases, the Gujarat police on Saturday arrested former Director General of Police R B Sreekumar and took in custody, social activist Teesta Setalvad for allegedly conspiring to falsely implicate innocent persons.

The FIR, based on a complaint filed by an Ahmedabad crime branch official, also named former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who is already jailed in a separate case.

Teesta Setalvad, who was picked up from her Mumbai residence, alleged that her arrest was illegal and apprehended a threat to her life. She was handed over to the Ahmedabad crime branch early Sunday morning. Setalvad will be produced before the magistrate court today, where the Crime Branch will seek her custody, along with Sreekumar, for interrogation.

The police will also seek the transfer of Sanjiv Bhatt for custodial interrogation. Bhatt is sentenced to life imprisonment in a custodial death case, and in another case, he is accused of planting contraband to frame a lawyer in a false case.

As per sources, all three accused will be confronted with documentary evidence gathered by the Crime Branch related to the SIT probe into the post-Godhra riots. 

According to the complaint filed by the Ahmedabad crime branch, Teesta Setalvad, Sanjiv Bhatt, and RB Sreekumar "conspired to abuse the process of law by fabricating false evidence to make several persons to be convicted in an offense that is punishable with capital punishment."

Allegations against Teesta, Bhatt & Sreekumar 

Teesta Setalvad and her Non-Governmental Organization were co-petitioners with Zakia Jafri in the petition filed against then chief minister Narendra Modi and others in the Supreme Court. The court dismissed the petition on Friday and upheld the clean chit given to Modi and others.

As per the complaint, "Teesta Setalvad conjured, concocted, forged, fabricated facts and documents and/or evidence including fabrication of documents by persons who were protective witnesses of petitioner Zakia Jafri"

The complaint also accused Teesta Setalvad of influencing and tutoring witnesses and making them depose on pre-typed affidavits. Even Zakia Jafri was tutored by Teesta Setalvad, as was clear from her statement before the Nanavati Commission on August 22, 2003, it said.

IPS officers Sanjiv Bhatt and R B Sreekumar - who were additional DGP of Armed Unit during the 2002 Godhra riot, and intelligence DGP - made several depositions before the Commission of Inquiry that were against the Gujarat government, the complaint said.

Sanjiv Bhatt allegedly forged various documents mailed to the SIT and also falsely claimed he attended a late-night meeting on February 27, 2002, called by the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi at his residence, it said.

RB Sreekumar's nine affidavits before the Nanavati-Shah Commission were the source of many of the allegations in Zakia Jafri's petition, it claimed.

(With inputs from agency)