AHMEDABAD: The city crime branch seeking 14-day remand before a metropolitan magistrate stated that the two accused — social activist Teesta Setalvad and former IPS officer R B Sreekumar — might have abused the process of law in other cases of riots.
Quoting a high court judgment of 2011, the city crime branch stated in its remand application, “It cannot be ruled out that Sreekumar and Setalvad together abused the process of law in the cases of communal riots in other parts of the country.”
The remand plea further states that as Sreekumar himself was a police officer, he was very well aware of the police functioning. “Under such circumstances, he needs to be thoroughly interrogated to get some crucial evidence in the case,” states the remand plea.
It further states that it needs to be investigated on how and under what circumstances the two accused — Setalvad and Sreekumar — came in contact with each other and how they prepared certain affidavits and what was their intention behind it.
The plea also mentions that as the accused are experts of the law and very influential persons, it is required to keep them in police custody and interrogate them. It also alleged that Setalvad and Sreekumar gave some allurement to the witnesses and victims of the 2002 riots to make them sign stereotyped affidavits. The plea was moved after the arrest of Setalvad and Sreekumar on an FIR filed by the city crime branch. The legal action came after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the clean chit given by the SIT to the then chief minister Narendra Modi and 62 others in the 2002 post-Godhra riot cases.
The FIR filed by city crime branch on Saturday invoked sections 468, 471 (forgery), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence), 211 (institute criminal proceedings to cause injury), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture), and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
