Activist Teesta Setalvad’s counsel submitted before the Gujarat High Court Monday that the evidence in relation to the 2002 Gujarat riots that has been alleged to be false by the prosecution were affidavits filed in the Supreme Court and not before the police. The said affidavits were filed in a transfer petition by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) four years before the 2006 complaint was filed by Zakia Jafri, wife of slain Congress MP Ahsan Jafri, the counsels stated arguing for bail before the High Court. The court of Justice Nirzar Desai will continue hearing the matter Tuesday. Setalvad is facing charges under the Indian Penal Code for offences under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 468, 469 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence), 211 (false charge of offence made with intent to injure) and 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture) in relation to an FIR lodged before the Ahmedabad crime branch last year. The charge sheet alleges that Setalvad, in a bid to implicate “then chief minister (and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and higher officials of the state government and top leaders of the BJP” for the large-scale deaths due to the 2002 communal riots “with death sentence”, hatched “a conspiracy" to institute a "false case with false evidence”.
