Left parties protest arrest of Setalvad and Sreekumar, demand their release

“DYFI Central Executive Committee condemns the arrest and demands their immediate release and withdrawal of all false charges imposed on them. We stand against the use of state machinery for political gains and seeking revenge. We also request the people of the country, who believe in democratic values, to come together against this sheer injustice and rise in protest.” added Bhattacharya.

Revolutionary Socialist Party (India) general secretary Manoj Bhattacharya said, “The RSS-BJP combine has once again demonstrated that the state, as on this day, is abominably intolerant and aggressive in avenging anyone they doubt to disagree with their nefarious designs. The Revolutionary Socialist Party is shocked and expresses its condemnation of the fascistic act of arresting the noted social worker Teesta Setalvad since she advanced the years-long fight for justice to the victims of the state-sponsored genocide in 2002 in Gujarat.” The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) also protested the arrests across the state.

The CPIML Central Committee said, “We salute the courage of Zakia Jafri, Teesta Setalvad, R.B. Shreekumar and others who did not falter in their pursuit of justice even when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. It does not augur well for a democracy when the Supreme Court inexplicably criminalises this pursuit of justice and calls for every person involved need to be in the dock and proceeded in accordance with the law. Their arrest is a product of the vindictiveness of PM Modi and Home Minister (Amit) Shah, enabled by the apex court of India.”

A day after the Supreme Court upheld the SIT’s clean chit in the 2002 riots to the then Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) arrested retired state DGP R B Sreekumar, whose role had been called into question by the Court, and Mumbai-based activist Teesta Setalvad, who supported the petitioner, Zakia Jafri.

The two were held on charges of criminal conspiracy, forgery and other Sections of the IPC based on an FIR lodged in the DCB by Inspector Darshansinh Barad, which quotes extensively from the Supreme Court order. Also named in the nine-page FIR, filed on behalf of the Gujarat state, is former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who also faced strictures in the Supreme Court order. Bhatt is already in jail in connection with another case.

While a DCB team detained Sreekumar after serving summons at his residence in Gandhinagar on Saturday afternoon, Setalvad was detained around the same time from her Mumbai residence.