Mangaluru, Feb 21: Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike DK district president Suresh Bhat Bakrabail has alleged that civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand were being subjected to a large amount of harassment and persecution by lodging several false complaints against them and there was a huge conspiracy behind this.
Speaking at a demonstration held by the organisation in front of deputy commissioner's office here, against the Gujarat state government and Modi-led union government for alleged “revenge” against the activist couple, he urged an investigation to bring out the truth behind this conspiracy.
This demonstration comes a day after Teesta and Javed were granted anticipatory bail by the Supreme Court in an embezzlement case.
Suresh Bhat said that as a result of the struggle of Teesta and Javed to bring justice to the victims of Gujarat communal riots, Maya Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi and 117 others were given life imprisonment by the court. Consequently, false charges were booked against Teesta-Javed duo at the same time when the case of Ahmadabad Gulbarg Society massacre is under investigation.
The Gulbarg Society massacre took place on 28 February 2002, during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when a Hindu mob attacked the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood in Chamanpura, Ahmedabad. Most of the houses were burnt, and at least 35 victims including a former Congress Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri, were burnt alive, while 31 others went missing after the incident, later presumed dead, bringing the total deaths to 69. International community had held Narendra Modi, the then chief minister of Gujarat responsible for the massacre.
Mr Bhat further said that the Gujarat High Court had denied anticipatory bail to Teesta-Javed couple based on the statements of the police despite the couple submitting a 1,500-page document showing evidence of their innocence to the court and ordered the police department to conduct their investigation by taking the couple into custody. There is big conspiracy going on with the intention of subjecting the couple to physical and mental harassment, he alleged.
This is a clear violation of Article 20 (3) of the Constitution, he stressed, welcoming the stay in arrest of Teesta and Javed by the Supreme Court.
Vedike secretary Ismath Fajeer, PUCL member Kabeer Ullal, Alwyn D'Silva, Jamaat-e-Islam youth wing state committee member Shabeer and others were present.
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