Activist Teesta Setalvad was enacting a larger conspiracy to destabilise an elected Gujarat government soon after a train in Godhra was set in fire in 2002, and had received financial assistance from a top leader of a rival political party, the state government’s special investigation team (SIT) has said.
In its affidavit in the city civil sessions court on Friday, challenging Setalvad’s bail plea, the SIT – formed to probe Setalvad along with R B Sreekumar, then ADGP, Armed Unit, for criminal conspiracy and forgery – cited statements of a witness and said the conspiracy was carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel.
“The statements of these two witnesses establish that the conspiracy was enacted by Setalvad along with other accused persons, at the behest of Late Shri Ahmed Patel, the then Member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha and political advisor to the President of the Indian National Congress,” the affidavit, a copy of which a media publication has seen, said.
