Gulbarg fund case: Setalvad moves SC; says victim of vendetta

Social activist Teesta Setalvad today claimed she was being implicated for espousing the cause of the 2002 Gujarat riot victims, soon after Supreme Court stayed her possible arrest in a case of alleged embezzlement of funds for a museum at Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Society.
Noting that it was a case of a "political vendetta" by the perpetrators of the riots, she said "attempts are being made constantly by the communal political outfits and the (Gujarat) state machinery to curtail the movement and freedom of the petitioners and also to arrest their activities, so as to cynically reverse the successes of the difficult struggle for reparation and justice."

Setalvad said this in her appeal before the apex court shortly after Gujarat High Court rejected her and her husband Javed Anand's anticipatory bail plea earlier today.
She claimed that the FIR against her and her husband has been filed allegedly at the behest of a political party and was based on wrong assumptions.
She contended that they have been implicated in the case and were victims of political vendetta, claiming they were being targeted by the perpetrators of the riots.
Contending that the denial of anticipatory bail by the High Court was unsustainable and contrary to law laid down by the apex court, the petition said that "animosity and the revengeful nature of the particular fraction has gone to the extent of lodging false cases in Gujarat in order to harass the petitioners".

"The petitioners are responsible and respected citizens of this country...There is no likelihood of not cooperating with the law enforcement agencies and hence custodial interrogation is not required," the petition filed through advocate Aparna Bhatt said.