The Gujarat anti-terrorist squad on Saturday detained activist Teesta Setalvad at the Santa Cruz police station after picking her up from her Mumbai residence. Setalvad’s lawyer Vijay Hiremath, while claiming that the police stormed into her house and assaulted her, told The Indian Express, “We were not informed. They barged into (her house), they assaulted her and they’ve taken her.” He further told IE that the activist was charged under sections 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (Using as genuine a forged) of the IPC.
The Gujarat ATS move to detain Setalvad comes moments after Amit Shah, while speaking to news agency ANI, accused Setalvad of giving “baseless information about the riots to the police.”
“I have read the judgement very carefully. The judgement clearly mentions the name of Teesta Setalvad. The NGO that was being run by her – I don’t remember the name of the NGO- had given baseless information about the riots to the police,” Mr Shah said.
This development comes a day after the top court “dismissed” the appeal of Zakia Jafri, wife of late Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was hacked to death in the 2002 Gujarat riots, while upholding the SIT probe on Narendra Modi and calling the appeal “devoid of merits.” Setalvad was a co-petitioner in the case that was rejected by the top court on Friday.