Teesta Setalvad and her husband made a “business out of charity”, said Ahmedabad Crime Branch in a fresh affidavit submitted to the Gujarat High Court. According to the affidavit, “not one penny” from crores of rupees raised out of art auctions and musical concert were disbursed among riots victims of 2002.
The affidavit was filed in order to oppose Teesta’s plea to defreeze her bank accounts. The case was listed on Wednesday in the court of Justice Sonia Gokani. The Ahmedabad Police in its affidavit said that Teesta through her NGO Citizen for Justice & Peace (CJP) organised musical concerts and art auctions and advertisements were made for raising the funds for the riots victims and even donations were sought for purchasing ambulances after 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai.
“In the case of embezzlement of funds for a museum at Gulbarg society, damaged in the 2002 riots, Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand ‘misappropriated’ funds for very personal nature including wine and whisky,” said the affidavit.
The art auction was held in Mumbai in October 2008 and the total receipt from it was `1 crore. According to Teesta, `60 lakh was expenditure on the auction. However, police claimed that they did not furnish even one supporting voucher for the expenses claimed or the gross amount received.
“Assuming that petitioners are right, a net amount of `40 lakh was received by the (Sabrang) trust. Even out of this net amount of `40 lakh, an amount of `25 lakh was transferred to the CJP, leaving an amount of only `15 lakh out of the art proceeds with Sabrang Trust,” said police, adding that although the advertising blitzkrieg soliciting donation for riot victims had commenced, not one penny out of the art auction receipts was disbursed in any manner to or expended on the riot victims.