The Gujarat anti-terrorist squad on Saturday arrived at activist Teesta Setalvad’s home in Mumbai’s Juhu and took her to Santacruz police station.
Setalvad’s lawyer Vijay Hiremath said to Indian Express: “We were not informed. They barged into (her house), they assaulted her and they’ve taken her.”
He further said that the police were applying charges under sections 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the IPC.
The lawyer said that the police want to take the activist to Ahmedabad for questioning.
This comes hours after Union home minister Amit Shah in an interview, accused Setalvad of giving baseless information to the police about the 2002 Gujarat Muslim genocide.
The Supreme Court Friday dismissed a plea filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging a clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and several others in the 2002 Gujarat Muslim genocide.
The apex court was hearing Jafri’s appeal challenging October 5, 2017, Gujarat High Court order upholding the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate Court’s decision to accept the SIT’s closure report, which gave a clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Modi and 63 others in genocide-related cases.
In its judgement, the apex court said that Setalvad, a co-petitioner in the case, exploited the emotions of Zakia Jafri.
“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,” Shah said in the interview.
(This is a developing story)
