The Supreme Court on July 5, 2023, extended its interim order till July 19, 2023, of protecting Teesta Setalvad from arrest, pursuant to the Gujarat High Court’s earlier rejection of her bail plea on July 1, 2023. The case is related to forgery of documents, tutoring of witnesses and influencing the system to malign the state of Gujarat and its functionaries in the country and abroad, by Setalvad. The apex court had observed last year how she made attempts to unsettle a democratically elected government and sully the image of the former chief minister of Gujarat and current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
Setalvad was arrested in June last year along with former Gujarat Director General of Police RB Sreekumar, and ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in an offence registered by Ahmedabad crime branch police for fabricating evidence to frame “innocent people” in the post-Godhra riots cases.
Last week, on July 1, 2023, the Gujarat high court rejected Teesta’s bail plea and asked her to surrender immediately. The Supreme Court, however, granted interim protection of seven-day bail to Setalvad, protecting her from arrest, with a special vacation bench of the apex court doing so, within barely eight hours of the Gujarat HC verdict. Last year too, Teesta was released from Gujarat’s Sabarmati jail in September after being granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots case.
On June 24, 2022, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court with Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and CT Ravikumar, while dismissing the plea by Zakia Jafri, noted that the claim of criminal conspiracy in the Gujarat riots by the then CM of Gujarat (Narendra Modi) and other state functionaries was absolutely false. “The structure of a larger criminal conspiracy at the highest level has been erected. The same stands collapsed like a house of cards, after thorough investigation by the SIT,” the bench said, in a landmark judgement that blew to smithereens the allegations of those who, driven by nothing but visceral hatred for Narendra Modi, had peddled vicious lies and devious anti-Modi propaganda for 20 long years.
During the course of the hearing, Kapil Sibal and others appearing for Jafri had essentially argued that the special investigation team (SIT) had not conducted a thorough probe into the matter and had ignored crucial evidence including certain sting operations by Tehelka, which suggested a larger conspiracy of complicity in the highest echelons of the Gujarat state’s power structure.
Sibal’s arguments, sans any credible proof, were resoundingly and rightfully dismissed by the top court in June last year. Dismissing the plea filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress leader Ehsaan Jafri, the court raised questions over the credibility of the petitioner and said, “Appellant in filing the protest petition had the gumption to assert that the list of persons was not exhaustive besides naming new persons as offenders. In the name of the protest petition, the appellant was also indirectly questioning the decisions rendered by the Courts in other cases, including sub judice matters, for reasons best known to her. She was obviously doing so under the dictation of someone. In fact, the sizeable contents of the protest petition are founded on the affidavits filed by those persons, whose versions have been found to be replete with falsehoods.”
The top court also noted that the SIT had formed its opinion after considering all the materials collated during the investigation. “The question of further investigation would have arisen only on the availability of new material/information in connection with the allegation of a larger conspiracy at the highest level, which is not forthcoming in this case,” the Supreme Court order read.
“We uphold the decision of the Magistrate in accepting the final report dated 08.02.2012 submitted by the SIT as it is, rejecting the protest petition filed by the appellant (Zakia Jafri). We don’t countenance the submission of the appellant regarding infraction of rule of law regarding the investigation and the approach of the Magistrate and the High Court in dealing with the final report. Accordingly, we hold the appeal is devoid of merits and deserves to be dismissed in aforementioned terms” — with those words, the Supreme Court put to rest yet another sinister plan of PM Modi’s detractors and persecutors to fix him in what is famously known as the Gujarat riots case.
The Supreme Court, upholding the clean chit given to Modi by the SIT, brought to an end the vicious propaganda of the Congress and its family retainers, the darbari Lutyens’ media, the corrupt, Leftist ecosystem, the Modi-hating self-styled NGOs and an entire battery of national and international players who tried their level best to halt Modi’s politically meteoric rise but failed. PM Modi deserves unabashed applause because he bore every insult, every canard, every humiliation with a stoic dignity that is rare. Not once did his faith in India’s judicial process waver or falter. Not once did he use state power to defeat his detractors. Not once did the BJP karyakartas take to the streets to protest against the probe against Modi.
This is in sharp contrast to the shameful vandalism and thuggery that was on display, with Congress workers taking to the streets when Congress scion Rahul Gandhi was being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last year, for his reported involvement in the National Herald related scam. Modi, like any law-abiding citizen, allowed the law of the land for almost two decades to take its course, without once using his status, power or privilege to stymie the judicial process. And do not forget that Modi has wielded unparalleled clout after having been a chief minister and then the prime minister in the last 20 years.
They say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But in the case of Modi, the power that the electorate bestowed on him repeatedly and relentlessly was never abused or misused and that is essentially what separates Modi from the routine paraphernalia of Opposition leaders who have allowed success to get the better of them. Today, Modi stands vindicated, with the legal process finally giving him an unconditional clean chit, leaving his detractors exposed, shamed, pulverised and marginalised.
The ceaseless persecution of Prime Minister Modi, initiated at the behest of the Congress and its ecosystem saw more than 60 investigations by government-appointed commissions, self-proclaimed activists’ headed tribunals, media bodies, various national and international NGOs and Supreme Court-appointed SIT. While every impartial probe gave a clean chit to Modi, the Modi-hating lobby didn’t stop trying — not even when he went into the 9th year of his tenure as Prime Minister of India.
No wonder the Supreme Court was forced to make an observation that “the proceedings have been pursued for the last 16 years to keep the pot boiling, obviously for ulterior design”. Going a step further, the SC held that “all those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with the law.”
It is said revenge is a dish best served cold. Well, in Modi’s case, his exoneration by the highest court of the land is surely sweet revenge against an entire “Congressi-fied” ecosystem that was served a damning indictment by the SC. In its severe indictment of the petitioner (Zakia Jafri) and her backers, India’s top court said, “It appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the state of Gujarat along with others was to create a sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge.”
It is important to mention here that Zakia Jafri became a petitioner in the Gujarat riots case for the first time in 2005-06, three to four years after the riots. The Supreme Court had appointed an SIT for investigation into the Gujarat riots much earlier, in 2003-04 and this SIT was submitting periodic reports to the top court.
The “Teesta” gang used Zakia Jafri as cannon fodder, exploiting her emotionally and using her as a pliable tool for their nefarious designs against Modi. Teesta and her husband claim to be social activists but there are now serious charges against them of using their NGO to funnel funds for illegitimate purposes. Money raised for victims of Gulbarg society was reportedly used by Teesta and Javed to fund their foreign vacations and to buy expensive champagne and lingerie. What can be more shameful than usurping money meant for riot victims and then splurging it on hairdos at beauty salons?
In fact, the apex court has castigated Teesta, in no uncertain terms, on how she used Zakia Jafri to abuse the judicial process only because she wanted to hit back at Modi. The long arm of the law finally caught up with her, with the Gujarat ATS arresting her on June 25, 2022. Teesta’s case will be investigated by ATS DIG of Gujarat, Deepan Bhadran.
Teesta Setalvad is accused of doing it all — from embezzling funds meant for charity, to raising foreign funds for her NGO ‘Citizens for Justice and Peace’ by flouting FCRA norms, to using Zakia Jafri as cannon fodder for her ulterior designs. The Congress party’s unbridled support for her is evident from the fact that she was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavna award in 2002 and a Padma Shri in 2007.
It is clear from the events of the past 20 years and various SC judgements that the endless saga of Narendra Modi’s persecution by his detractors to propagate the Gujarat riots falsehoods as truth and continue their tirade against Modi, not only hardened his resolve but also helped unmask the ugly game of the Gujarat riots cottage industry anchored by the Congress. But what is bizarre is that the alibi of delivering justice for the riot victims of 2002 got transmogrified into the pursuit of political vengeance against Modi. The whole saga is a tell-tale commentary of how anti-Modi NGO activism by Leftists, Leftist academia, urban Naxals and Leftist media sustained itself as an industry for over a decade, with help from notorious elements both at home and abroad.
In the final analysis, going by the historic SC verdict of June 24, 2022, there was no state-sponsored pogrom in 2002, as claimed by many. Period. Not just Muslims, but Hindus too lost their lives in the Gujarat riots and hence to paint the 2002 violence as a pogrom against Muslims is nothing but divisive politics that was played brazenly by the then Congress-led UPA government. The good part is, the truth has finally prevailed and desperate attempts by the Congress, Leftists and the Lutyens’ establishment to tarnish the image of Narendra Modi have failed miserably.
Sanju Verma is an economist, national spokesperson of the BJP and the bestselling author of ‘The Modi Gambit’. Views expressed are personal.
Comments
0 comment