By IndiaTomorrow.net,
Mumbai, 15 July 2015: Eminent civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad has strongly condemned the raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at her home and office in Mumbai on Tuesday. The CBI carried the daylong raid a week after booking Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand for allegedly illegally receiving foreign funds. However, Setalvad has termed the raid as “shameful political vendetta” and “an attempt to intimidate and humiliate” her. She also said she has not violated any laws.
Last Wednesday CBI had registered a case against Setalvad, Anand and their associate Peshimam Gulam Mohammad for criminal conspiracy and illegal acceptance of foreign contributions for their company, Sabrang Communications and Publishing Pvt. Ltd. (SCPPL). The three have been accused of diverting foreign funds to SCPPL by violating the provision of the Foreign Contribution and Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010.
“It’s shameful political vendetta. The Zakia Jafri case begins its final hearings on July 27 2015. The Naroda Patiya appeals (Kodnani and Bajrangi) are being heard in the Gujarat High Court tomorrow. This is nothing but a bid to subvert the cause of public justice and ensure that no justice happens in these cases,” said Teesta in a statement Tuesday night while search was on.
“In our view, and we repeat, no laws have been broken by us. This is a continuation of the persecution and witch hunt first launched by the Gujarat police in 2014 then under the dispensation that rules Delhi. The CBI has taken the same documents that we had voluntarily, on inspection, given the MHA (FCRA dept). Over 25,000 pages of documentary evidence have been given to the Gujarat Police. When they could not succeed with the bizarre and desperate attempts to gain custody (February 2015), it was the Gujarat Government’s Home Department that wrote to the MHA and the current round of the persecutions began.”
“We had written to the CBI offering full cooperation. The so called offences relate to documentary evidence. This search is nothing but an attempt to intimidate and humiliate. India should be ashamed that when scams like Vyapam are happening, over 50 persons dying, witnesses in Asaram Bapu case are dying, the CBI is not appealing in critical cases related to crimes by politicians The agency is being unleashed on human rights defenders standing up for the rights of Survivors of Mass Violence. It is worse than the British Raj,” she said.
Since the Gujarat riot 2002, Teesta has been fighting for justice for the riot victims. In the post-Godhra train carnage riot, around 2000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in Gujarat then ruled by Narendra Modi as chief minister. In the train carnage, around 60 karsevaks were killed while returning from Ayodhya.
