Facing arrest in a fund embezzlement case, social activist Teesta Setalvad on Thursday got a temporary reprieve from the Supreme Court (SC ) even as a Gujarat Police team was on the lookout for her following Gujarat High Court’s refusal to provide interim protection to her and her husband Javed Anand.
Within minutes of the HC rejecting relief to Teesta and her husband Javed Anand, reports came in that the Gujarat Police was headed to Teesta’s residence in Mumbai. The couple consulted their legal team in Delhi and approached the SC at 4 pm. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter before a Bench headed by Chief Justice Hl Dattu.
Presenting the case orally even as the appeal was getting typed, Sibal termed it an “extraordinary situation” requiring urgent intervention as arrest of the social activist who championed the cause of the Gujarat riot victims was imminent.
The Bench, also comprising Justices AK Sikri and Arun Mishra, ordered immediate stay of the order till Friday allowing in the meantime for the appeal to be filed and heard by another Bench of the apex court. In her appeal, filed later in the day, Setalvad claimed to be a victim of “political vendetta” by perpetrators of the riots.
“Attempts are being made constantly by the communal political outfits and the (Gujarat) State machinery to curtail the movement and freedom of the petitioners and also to arrest their activities, so as to cynically reverse the successes of the difficult struggle for reparation and justice,” the appeal stated.
The case against Setalvad pertained to alleged embezzlement of funds meant for a museum at Gulbarg society, devastated in the 2002 riots. The couple was booked by the Crime Branch of Gujarat Police on charges of cheating, breach of trust and under the Income-Tax Act, on a complaint alleging that the two trusts run by Citizens for Justice and Peace and Sabrang Trust misappropriated a sum of Rs 1.51 crore collected to construct a “Museum of Resistance” in Ahmedabad’s Gulbarg society as a memorial to the 2002 carnage.
The High Court while refusing relief to the duo, observed that Teesta was not cooperating in the probe. Rejecting their anticipatory bail petitions, the HC judge said: “There is no cooperation at all. At any cost, the applicants want to evade the interrogation and are not ready and willing to disclose the facts.”
The HC remarked that affidavits by witnesses had brought out several “shocking facts” about the applicants having used the funds collected in the name of riot victims and meant for the poor and needy people for personal and materialistic purposes.
The HC added: “By merely hurling allegations of mala fides, the accused who is otherwise prima facie involved in a crime is not automatically entitled to anticipatory bail.” Rejecting the prayer of Setalwad for a stay till she approached the Supreme Court, the HC observed that Setalwad had filed the pre-arrest bail plea just to avoid custodial interrogation and maintained that their custodial interrogation was “in public interest” and “in the interest of justice”.
In 2006, the idea to build the museum emerged but in six years, the idea was dropped as price of land escalated. The same was communicated to the society. But, the Sabrang Trust kept collecting funds and this resulted in a complaint by a riot victim.