PRESS RELEASE
22-07-2015
STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF TEESTA SETALVAD
We, the undersigned, express their profound dismay and disquiet at the continued official harassment of human rights defenders Teesta Setalvad and Jawed Anand by the Central Government. Since installation of the BJP led Government in Delhi in May 2014, the country has witnessed open strenuous official efforts to foist a large variety of charges of financial irregularity on them, to harass them, to tarnish their reputations, and to secure their arrests. Fortunately, the interventions of the higher judiciary have protected them so far. However, the latest raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation into their home and offices in Mumbai on 14h July 2015 are signs of continuing open misuse of official bodies to harass these human rights defenders.
It is well-known that Teesta Setalvad and Jawed Anand have fought an unrelenting battle not only to bring to book criminals who committed gruesome hate crimes against Muslims in the carnage of 2002, but also to expose the role of the Gujarat Government in enabling, abetting and even organizing these crimes. They have been fearless in charging the then Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, who is currently the country’s Prime Minister, with direct criminal culpability for these crimes. For this, they have assisted the widow of a former M.P. who was slaughtered in the carnage, Zakia Jafri, to fight a brave court battle in which the first accused is the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. They are also appealing against the court orders to free on bail, prominent political leaders of the BJP convicted of the worst massacre in Naroda Patiya, Maya Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi.
What we are witnessing is crude and defiant misuse of official bodies to beat down these human rights defenders so as to silence their voices, break their morale and divert them from their unrelenting battles in defence of justice which charge the country’s current leadership with complicity in hate crimes. The veracity of their charges will be decided in the country’s courts. But their right to fight for justice on behalf of the survivors of one of the most shameful communal carnages in the history of free India, is protected by India’s democracy. The open official bullying of courageous human rights defenders even as persons charged with a range of serious crimes walk free, are brazen official attempts to diminish Indian democracy. These must be powerfully resisted by all democratic voices in the country.
We urge upon the Central Govt. and the C.B.I., to desist from employing such deplorable tactics which are inspired by nothing but malice and revenge. Govt. and C.B.I. should know that democratic forces and the human rights movement in the country stand in support of both Teesta and Jawed and such brutal efforts to silence the voices of dissent will be duly resisted.
Suresh Meha Former C.M., Gujarat
Girish Patel Senior Advocate
Gautam Thaker PUCL – Gujarat
Prakash N. Shah Editor, Nirikshak
Rohit Shukla Save the Education Committee
Dwarikanath Rath M. S. D.
Father Sedrik Prakash Prashant
Prof. J. S. Bandukwala Human Rights Activist
Rajani Dave Gujarat Sarvodaya Mandal
Indukumar Jani Editor, Naya Marg
Dr. Mahernassi Desai AMWA
Sara Baldiwala AWAG
Neeta Mahadev Gujarat Lok Samiti
Swarp Dhurve Darshan
Harinesh Pandya Janpath
Mahadev Vidrohi Sarva Seva Sangh
Hiren Gandhi INSAF
Jayshree Joshi ISAR
Ikram Mirza Jamate Islame Hind
Pankati Jog Mahiti Adhikar
Dinesh Rabari Maldhari Vikas Sangathan
Bhavik Raja DSO
Uttam Parmar Activist
Prof. Hemantkumar Shah Activist
The courts of this country are on trial, not Teesta
The hounding of Teesta Setalvad is timed to coincide with the publicly articulated urge of the Prime Minister to get a “clean chit” from the courts in relation to the ongoing cases in Gujarat, which Teesta has been doggedly pursuing. She is the victim of the pursuit for justice.
We are being asked to roll back the clock, consign the 2002 Gujarat carnage to the dustbin of history and replace Teesta Setalvad as the villain, who hounded the then chief minister...Can the collective amnesia on the Gujarat riots, and the view that we must move on be legitimized?
All this could possibly happen if Zakia Jafri and Teesta Setalvad, who are doing everything constitutionally and legally possibe to hold the head of the then government accountable, are checkmated, preferably gagged, and put into jail.
Zakia’s criminal revision petition is not about seeking recourse to justice for one incident of massacre, where her husband was brutally hacked and burnt to death but about the larger issue of command responsibility of the then CM, and now PM, in failing to prevent the killings from taking place.
It is high time this country saw the emergence of the Doctrine of Command Responsibility as a statutory and constitutional imperative, rather than leaving it to the notoriously weak provisions of the Indian Penal Code, which address only crime by individuals and punish only the hand that kills. Conspiricies are not easy to prove, but judging from the attack on Teesta Setalvad, the PM seems worried and insecure that there is an off chance, maybe just an off chance, that some well-meaning judge might accept the evidence pointing out the massive failure of his constitutional duty to prevent the killings. What stands between him and the “clean chit” are the courts and the cases Teesta and some of us are pursuing.
This pursuit of justice is slowly but steadily reaching its climax. Could this be the reason for her threatened arrest? The enormous support and assistance she gave 5,000 surviving witnesses, who unflinchingly recorded their testimonies, helped secure 120 convictions to life imprisonments, including that of a minister in the state cabinet.
I once had a discussion with Teesta in Mumbai at a public meeting soon after the 1992 riots. We agreed that if we had fought the 1984 Sikh killings in Delhi the way we do now the Gujarat carnage, the 1993 killing in Mumbai would not have happened. I can now add that, if in 1993 the Justice Srikrishna Commssion findings were accepted and we had succeded in convicting even one accused at the top level, 2002 would not have happened. It is this understanding that compels her to continue with the fight against the killers of the 2002 carnage. What we are witnessing is the power of the state and its terrorising arm, the CBI, to mount a raid on Teesta’s home and office to prove that she misused foreign funds versus the power of the courts to hold power to account. Who will win this battle? It is the courts of this country that are on trial, not Teesta.
As for the proverbial wine and visits to the beauty parlour, apart from the fact that they sustain the myth of the “five-star” activists, I must remind the courts that they hold their own legal aid meetings spending money meant for the poor in seven-star hotels. There is a record of a protest as regards this lodged by no less a person than a former judge of the Chennai High Court. Will they be swayed by such allegations now to refuse Teesta bail? This is not to admit on my part that money was so spent, but rather to expose the hollow legal nature of the reasons to oppose bail. It is nobody’s case that there should be no investigation into the alleged misuse of funds, rather that the investigation be free and fair.
I now ask a basic question, why is there one law for the non-profit organizations and another for for-profit corporates? Why is there no imprisonment under FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) but imprisonment for non-profits for violating norms relating to getting grants from foreign donors under FCRA? The only explanation is that the FCRA is a gateway to crushing human rights, and what is worse, an alibi for an argument that we, the NGOs who take up human right issues are “anti-national”. We compromise the “economic security” of our countries, expressions that were reserved for terrorists so far. I call for the repeal of the FCRA and its replacement with a Foreign Contributions Management Act, which addresses only public servants.
Perhaps then we will see some justice for Teesta, the woman whose father named her after a river in Bangladesh which flows fearlessly across borders.
Indira Jaising
The Times of India, TNN | Jul 25, 2015, 12.00AM IST.
Front Line Defenders on the case of Teesta Setalvad in India
24 July 2015
Update: India’s High Court grants anticipatory bail to Teesta Setalvad
On 24 July 2015, the Bombay High Court granted human rights defender Ms Teesta Setalvad anticipatory bail for two weeks, overturning a decision of the Mumbai Special Court which, earlier on the same day, had ruled against it. The High Court ruling means that, should the police proceed to arrest the human rights defender, she should immediately be released on bail.
Teesta Setalvad is a journalist and founder of Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP). Sabrang Trust was established after the 1992-1993 communal violence in Mumbai, and works to promote conflict resolution and support peace building. CJP was established in April 2002, in the immediate aftermath of the communal violence during the Gujarat riots, to provide legal aid to the survivors of the riots, and has been instrumental in obtaining the 117 convictions against perpetrators of the violence, among which are politicians and government officials. Narendra Modi, who has been Prime Minister since 2014, was Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time of the riots and was criticised for his conduct at that time.
Teesta Setalvad has been facing judicial harassment since January 2014, when an investigation on spurious allegations of embezzlement of funds intended for the construction of a memorial to the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots began against her. In the context of the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings, the human rights defender has faced systematic probing into the accounts of her NGOs, groundless accusations of non-cooperation with the police and denial of permission to travel abroad. Furthermore, the bank accounts of Setalvad’s private business, Sabrang Communication and Publishing Private Limited, have been frozen and permission must be granted by state investigators for any further foreign transactions to take place.
A fresh investigation by the Ministry of Human Resource Development began in March 2015. On 8 July 2015, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a criminal case against Teesta Setalvad and CJP, based on alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act and the Indian Penal Code. On 14 July 2015, CBI officers raided Teesta Setalvad’s house and office. The raid, which was carried out without any prior warning, lasted approximately 23 hours.
Front Line Defenders welcomes the decision of the Bombay High Court, but reiterates its call for an end to the judicial harassment of Teesta Setalvad, as it believes these actions to be an attempt to repress her legitimate work in the defence of human rights.
For further information on the case, see Teesta Setalvad’s page on Front Line Defenders’ website.
Source: Front Line Defenders
Twitter: @FrontlineHRD
Facebook:Front Line Defenders
Web: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org
Bombay HC grants Teesta Setalvad interim relief from arrest till 10 August
Mumbai: In a breather to social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband, the Bombay High Court on Friday granted the duo 17-day interim relief from arrest in a CBI case alleging that her company received Rs 1.8 crore from abroad without mandatory approval from Centre.
Justice Mridula Bhatkar, while granting Teesta and her husband Javed Anand interim protection from arrest till 10 August, said the duo was already given protection by the sessions court.
Teesta and Anand moved the high court seeking anticipatory bail after a special CBI court on Friday rejected their pre-arrest bail pleas and also refused to extend the interim relief granted to them earlier on 17 July.
“At this stage I do not want to go into merits. Is there any chance of the accused persons absconding? If no, then interim protection can be granted for a period of two weeks,” Justice Bhatkar said.
The court directed Teesta and her husband to appear before the office of Economic Offences Wing of CBI on 27 and 30 July and on 3 and 6 August for recording their statement from 12 pm to 3 pm.
The court refused to agree to the CBI’s demand to direct the duo to appear before the agency everyday.
“They (Teesta and Javed) have been appearing before you (CBI) from July 17. You must have done some investigation. Everyday appearance is not required,” Justice Bhatkar said.
Public Prosecutor Sandeep Shinde, appearing for CBI, argued that the offence was of a serious nature and custodial interrogation was required.
The court has posted their anticipatory bail petitions for final hearing on 10 August.
Soon after the sessions court rejected her bail pleas, Teesta told the court that she was shocked and aggrieved.
“I am shocked and aggrieved by the verdict as this is a petty offence. My sympathisers feel that this is an attempt (by the government) to intimidate and possibly eliminate us by the powers (sic),” she said.
The CBI had on 8 July registered a case against Teesta and Anand alleging that her firm Sabrang Communication and Publishing Pvt Limited (SCPPL) received around 2.9 lakh USD in foreign donations in violation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
PTI
* Jul 24, 2015 23:03 IST:
http://www.firstpost.com/india/bombay-hc-grants-teesta-setalvad-interim-relief-from-arrest-till-10-august-2361754.html