Gujarat court rejects bail pleas of Teesta Setalvad

Ahmedabad, July 30: A sessions court in Ahmedabad on Saturday denied bail to activist Teesta Setalvad and former DGP R B Sreekumar in a case of fabrication of evidence related to the 2002 riots case.

Additional principal judge D D Thakkar said that both the orders are rejected.

Setalvad and Sreekumar were arrested by the city crime branch around a month back on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) against them under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction for capital offence).

In its affidavit, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe the case has alleged that they were part of a larger conspiracy carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel to destabilise the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Narendra Modi.

It has alleged that Setalvad was paid Rs 30 lakh at Patel's behest soon after the Godhra train burning incident of 2002.

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", the SIT claimed.