Teesta Setalvad Plotted Against Narendra Modi At Ahmed Patel’s Behest, Says Probe Team

Sudha Rani July 17, 2022Last Updated: July 17, 2022

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The SIT probing the Gujarat riots case accused Congress’s Ahmed Patel of conspiring towards Narendra Modi

Gujarat Police has opposed activist Teesta Setalvad’s bail plea, claiming that she was part of a “larger conspiracy” against the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel.

Gujarat Police has opposed the bail application of activist Teesta Setalvad, claiming that she was part of a “big conspiracy” against the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel.

An affidavit filed by the Special Investigation Team of the police before the sessions court said that Setalvad had planned at the behest of Ahmed Patel to sack the BJP government in Gujarat after the 2002 riots. Additional Sessions Judge DD Thakkar took the SIT’s reply on record and adjourned the hearing on the bail application to Monday.

Setalvad has been arrested along with former IPS officers RB Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt on charges of fabricating evidence to implicate innocent people in Gujarat riots cases.

“The political objective of the applicant (Setalvad) while authorizing this larger conspiracy was dismissal or destabilization of the elected government….She obtained illegal financial and other advantages and rewards from a rival political party rather of her tries to wrongly implicate faithful persons in Gujarat,” said the SIT’s affidavit.

Referring to the statements of a witness, the SIT said that the conspiracy was done at the behest of the late Ahmed Patel. It alleged that Setalvad received Rs 30 lakh after the 2002 post-Godhra riots at Patel’s behest.

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

It cited another witness to claim that in 2006 Setalvad had asked a Congress leader why the party was “only giving Shabana and Javed a chance” and not making her a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Last month, a day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit given to the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in the Gujarat riots case, the state police arrested Setalvad.

Along with Sreekumar and Bhatt, they were booked under IPC sections 468 (forgery) and 194 (granting or fabricating false evidence with intent to obtain a conviction for capital offence ) among additional offences.