Gujarat Riots Case: Activist Teesta Setalvad, Ex-Top Cop Sreekumar Denied Bail

Ahmedabad: A sessions court denied bail to activist Teesta Setalvad and former DGP RB Sreekumar here on Saturday.

Both were arrested last month for allegedly fabricating documents to frame innocent people in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Additional principal judge DD Thakkar said both their bail petitions have been rejected.

The Supreme Court last month ruled out a larger conspiracy behind the 2002 Gujarat riots and expressed the need to proceed against those “disgruntled officers of the state of Gujarat and others” whose “coalesced efforts were to create sensation by making false revelations.”

Soon after, Setalvad and Sreekumar were picked up from their residences in Juhu and Gandhinagar, respectively.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case said in its affidavit that Setalvad and Sreekumar were part of a Congress-orchestrated conspiracy designed to destabilise the then-BJP government helmed by Narendra Modi.

The SIT report further said that Setalvad had been paid Rs 30 lakh at late Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s behest soon after a train was burnt at Godhra in 2002, while Sreekumar was a “disgruntled government officer who abused the process for damning the elected representatives, bureaucracy and police administration of the whole state of Gujarat for ulterior purposes.”