The submission, a part of an investigation, came up at a court where a Special Investigation Team of the Gujarat Police said Setalvad was part of a “larger conspiracy” to dislodge the then BJP government in Gujarat.
Ahmedabad: Deceased Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who died two years back, had plotted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with activist Teesta Setalvad after the 2002 Gujarat riots, the Gujarat Police said. The Congress has refuted the charge and so has Ahmed Patel’s family.
The submission, a part of an investigation, came up at a court where a Special Investigation Team of the Gujarat Police said Setalvad was part of a “larger conspiracy” to dislodge the then BJP government in Gujarat led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Opposing a request for bail, the SIT said Setalvad hatched the plan at the instance of Ahmed Patel. The case will be heard next on Monday.
Reacting to the charges, Congress slammed the BJP and the Prime Minister and said, it is a “part of the Prime Minister’s systematic strategy to absolve himself of any responsibility for the communal carnage unleashed when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2002.”
The Gujarat Police’s Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) on June 25 detained activist Teesta Setalvad in Mumbai in the afternoon and subsequently arrested her.
The development had come hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in an interview, accused Setalvad of giving out baseless information about the 2002 Gujarat riots to the police.
The Supreme Court on June 24 had rejected an appeal against the clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others by a Special Investigation Team in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots. The plea was filed by Zakia Jafri the wife of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the riots.
Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed in what came to be known as the Gulbarg Society massacre in 2002.
Also read: Day after SC ruling on Gujarat riots, ATS detains Teesta Setalvad
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who represented the Special Investigation Team, told the Supreme Court that it should endorse the trial court and the Gujarat High Court’s decision on Jafri’s plea otherwise “it would result in an endless exercise that could go on because of some motives of social activist Teesta Setalvad, who is Petitioner Number 2 in the petition”.
