Activist Teesta Setalvad was taken into custody on Saturday over an FIR filed against her for allegedly giving false information about the Gujarat riots.

A Gujarat anti-terror squad (ATS) team detained her in Mumbai and she will be taken to Hyderabad for further investigation. This came a day after the Supreme Court upheld the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) clean chit to 64 people, including PM Narendra Modi, in the 2002 riots case. 

According to the FIR, Setalvad, through Zakia Jafri, put several petitions in court and gave false information to SIT head and other commissions.

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The accused have been booked under sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged documents as genuine), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of a capital offence) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Setalvad, who was born on February 9, 1962, is the secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), an organisation formed to advocate for the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots.

CJP is a co-petitioner seeking a criminal trial against Modi and sixty-two other politicians and government officials for alleged complicity in the Gujarat riots of 2002.

The apex court on Friday said that Setalvad exploited the emotions of petitioner Jafri for “ulterior motives.”

A three-judge bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar said there is no merit in Jafri’s petition while upholding the 2012 order passed by Gujarat magistrate accepting the SIT report. “

Antecedents of Teesta Setalvad need to be reckoned with and also because she has been vindicively persecuting this lis [dispute] for her ulterior design by exploiting the emotions and sentiments of Zakia Jafri, the real victim of the circumstances,” the apex court said in its order.

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The supreme court said that there is a need for further investigation into Setalvad as she was using Jafri’s feelings in the case for her own benefit.

Setalvad is the daughter of Atul Setalvad, a Mumbai-based lawyer, and his wife Sita Setalvad. Her paternal grandfather was M. C. Setalvad, India’s first Attorney General. Setalvad married Javed Anand, a journalist turned minority rights activist. They have two children, a daughter and a son.