Gujarat High Court asks activist Teesta Setalwad to appear before police

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court today directed activist Teesta Setalwad, her husband Javed Anand and slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri's son Tanvir alongwith another person to appear before the Investigating Officer every fortnight in an alleged Gulbarg Society fund misuse case.

Justice A J Desai directed Setalwad, Anand, Jafri and a former Gulbarg society resident Firoz Gulzar to appear before the city crime branch's Investigating Officer (IO) every fortnight for the purpose of interrogation in the case.

The High Court issued this direction while hearing anticipatory bail applications filed by Setalwad and three others in which they contended that the city crime branch of Gujarat police intended to arrest her and others in the fund misuse case.

Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who appeared on behalf of the city crime branch today argued before the High Court that the accused (Setalwad and others) should be given a fair opportunity to put their side by appearing before the Investigating Officer.

So far, they have not appeared before the Investigating Officer of the case and also not cooperated with the investigations, Jethmalani argued.

Setalwad and others sought anticipatory bail from the High Court as the city sessions court here had rejected their pre-arrest bail plea on March 25.

The city crime branch, in January, had registered an FIR against Setalvad and others for allegedly usurping Rs 1.51 crore collected by them in form of donations them for turning Gulbarg Society into a riots museum.

The issue had surfaced when the twelve residents of Gulbarg society had demanded Rs 1.51 crore from Setalvad last year alleging that money collected in their name for making museum at the Gulbarg Society was usurped by her and never distributed to them even after they dropped the idea of the museum.

On 28 February, 2002, following the Godhra Sabarmati train carnage, 69 people including former MP Ehsan Zafri were killed by an unruly mob at Gulbarg Society here during the riots.