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Teesta Setalvad unmasked: How she milked the Gujarat 2002 victims for personal wealth

jairamesh

By jairamesh
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jairamesh Newbie

jairamesh

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Teesta Setalvad unmasked Teestainside20130301.jpghttp://www.niticentral.com/2013/03/01/teesta-setalvad-unmasked-51265.html

Teesta Setalvad, a Mumbai-based journalist, who, like former IAS officer Harsh Mander, shot to national and international fame due to high profile activism over the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat in March 2002, has been unmasked in a most unseemly manner. Over the past decade, Setalvad survived controversies with former protñÈ Zahira Sheikh and employee Rais Khan Pathan, besides a Gujarat Government investigation into illegal exhumation of graves, thanks to unstinted backing from the media, the Supreme Court, the Congress and the UPA Government. But now she has fallen foul of the residents of Gulbarg Society whose cause she vociferously espoused. Setalvad has been publicly accused of the same crime that Best Bakery survivor Zahira Sheikh once accused her of collecting money in the name of the riot victims and failing (or refusing) to distribute (or even share) it. She overcame the dispute with Zahira by demonising the young girl, but now residents of Gulbarg Society have sent her a notice demanding that she distribute the funds she collected among the riot victims. Relations have soured to the point that Setalvad failed to attend the memorial service for victims this year. The residents (all Muslims) are demanding that the money ÅÄollected over the dead bodies of those who died in this society must be divided among the riot victims as it ÅÉas been taken in our name? Claiming that the residents were unaware that a trust had been formed for making the collections, they said that what the human rights activist had done ÅÂmounts to cheating? The dispute goes back to 2006 when Setalvad proposed to purchase the 5,200-square-metre Gulbarg Society land from the residents to set up a museum. The deal failed to materialise, but SetalvadÃÔ Trust collected donations, which the residents say must be distributed among riot victims. This is not Teflon TeestaÃÔ first brush with controversy. Former aide Rais Khan Pathan accused her of tampering with witness affidavits when at least six women of Naroda Gam denied before the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team in 2008 that they were raped during the riots. The witnesses said they did not know this was being said in the affidavits as the documents were in English, a language they were not familiar with. More recently, in January 2013, Rais Khan accused SetalvadÃÔ NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace, of violating the provisions of the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act regarding receipts of funds from abroad. He demanded cancellation of CJPÃÔ FCRA registration and initiation of criminal proceedings against its trustees. Pathan averred that CJPÃÔ FCRA permission was under the economic and education categories, but the NGO had no such activities. Infact, CJP, as per its constitution is a non-political, registered social organisation established to promote communal harmony, make legal interventions to prosecute those guilty of killing innocent citizens and assist others petitioning before the courts for redressal of grievances. SetalvadÃÔ worst victim by far is young Zahira Sheikh who, like Rehmatnagar tailor Qutbuddin Ansari, was projected as the female face of the Gujarat riots, and exploited to the hilt to demonise Chief Minister Narendra Modi, while building the profiles and careers to his tormentors. Now, as voices against SetalvadÃÔ functioning get louder, it may be in order to mention some facts. Zahira Sheikh lost several family members in the attack on the Best Bakery, owned by them. ZahiraÃÔ testimony in the Vadodara fast-track court in June 2003 led to the acquittal of 21 accused persons. But in July 2003, she was airlifted to Mumbai where she was warmly received by Javed Akhtar; here she claimed she had testified out of fear. Setalvad then whipped up great frenzy, drawing the National Human Rights Commission into the fray. The NHRC asked the Supreme Court to transfer the riot cases out of Gujarat. The Supreme Court duly obliged by sending the Zahira Sheikh and Bilkis Bano cases to Mumbai and directing the Gujarat Government to re-examine all other cases. Then, in 2005, Zahira Sheikh accused Teesta Setalvad of physically controlling her from July 6, 2003 to November 3, 2004 and tutoring her to give a certain type of testimony in court. She said the affidavit submitted to the NHRC in the name of Zahira Sheikh by Setalvad (600-odd pages of documentation) was unsigned! They were, Zahira sneered, mere pamphlets. In other words, the NHRC and the Supreme Court had acted without scrutinizing the documents that is, without legal basis. Unfortunately, Zahira was denied the right to cross-examine the then NHRC chairperson AS Anand when she said that an oral testimony given to the chairman and two members of the Commission differed from the record NHRC presented to the Supreme Court. This was a serious allegation, but it was brushed aside by the Apex Court which continued to give a free run to Setalvad. Zahira Sheikh was the first to demand a probe into Teesta SetalvadÃÔ post-Gujarat assets. Instead, the Apex Court appointed a probe committee headed by Registrar General BM Gupta and punished the feisty victim for perjury, startling even senior jurists. The Court also ignored reports beginning to emerge in the media about witnesses claiming to have received money for giving testimony in the post-Godhra trial cases. As if this were not enough, in December 2005 Teesta Setalvad illegally exhumed bodies of Gujarat riot victims from graves near Pandarwada. When the State Government initiated action against her on grounds of fabricating false evidence, tampering with evidence, criminal conspiracy and outraging religious feelings, the apex court stayed criminal proceedings against her and called it a mala fide case and a ÅÔpurious case to victimise Setalvad. Teesta Setalvad has been richly rewarded for her activism with a plethora of national and international awards, including the Nuremberg Human Rights Award 2003, Parliamentarians for Global Action ÃÂ¥efender of Democracy Award, jointly with Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand 2004; M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award from the Vigil India Movement 2004, Nani A Palkhivala Award 2006, and Padma Shri 2007. But now her aura of greatness is beginning to falter. With her, the National Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court cannot evade public scrutiny of their actions and attitudes in the Gujarat riots cases. The young orphan, Zahira Sheikh, was made to suffer terrible victimization, and has since vanished into oblivion; she deserves a public apology and decent compensation. It is also imperative that the accounts of Setalvad, and indeed all NGOs associated with the Gujarat riots, are audited to see how much money they collected and what relief was actually distributed to the victims.
bulbul Newbie

bulbul

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Teesta Setlevad could be arrested today after the court rejects her plea for anticipatory bail
One more weapon for media to attack Modi/BJP/Hindutva etc.... :((
bulbul Newbie

bulbul

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:hatsoff: Prashant Bhushan...he saved her just in time...
No, Its Zero loss man. Hope SC shows same courtesy to common people as well.
Texan Grand Master

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Cops say Teesta pocketed crores, bought booze, shoes; she denies Social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand told the Supreme Court that Gujarat Police was on a witch hunt against them by leveling ridiculous charges of misappropriation of crores of rupees from donations for riot victims when the truth was that their NGOs had collected a total of Rs 4 lakh only. Their counsel Kapil Sibal said, "We have collected only Rs 4 lakh. The complaint was on a forged letterhead of Gulbarg Society. They are all put up. They have every document to prove their innocence." However, additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta presented a completely different story based on police investigation so far before a bench of justices SJ Mukhopadhaya and NV Ramana and accused the couple of siphoning off huge amounts from their organizations — Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) — for their personal use. Mehta presented a summary of funds received and spent by Sabrang and CJP from 2007 till April 2014. Total receipt of Rs 9.75 crore included foreign donations to Sabrang of Rs 1.35 crore, local donations to Sabrang of 3.27 crore, foreign donations to CJP of Rs 1.02 crore and local donations to CJP of Rs 4.12 crore. The disbursal of funds from these two organizations was even more detailed. Amount transferred to Setalvad — Rs 46.91 lakh; to Anand — Rs 28.34 lakh; paid to Sabrang Communication Pvt Ltd (owned by Setalvad and Anand) — Rs 1.69 crore; cash withdrawals from the accounts of CJP and Sabrang — Rs 1.08 crore; credit card payments of Setalvad from savings and FCRA accounts of CJP and Sabrang — Rs 26.33 lakh; credit card payments of Anand from Sabrang Trust and CJP — Rs 3.33 lakh; amount transferred to daughter Tamara Setalvad Rs 1.5 lakh. The funds received by Sabrang Trust included Rs 1.4 crore from the Union HRD ministry. The Gujarat Police affidavit before the HC said, "Government of India, ministry of HRD, transferred Rs 58.72 lakh to Sabrang Trust on February 17, 2011; Rs 26.66 lakh on July 13, 2012 and Rs 54.20 lakh on July 6, 2013." It gave details of goods bought by Setalvad through credit cards and for which payments were allegedly made from Sabrang Trust and CJP. "From the scrutiny of credit card payments, the most shocking revelation came from the payments made towards wine and liquor purchases from Chincholi Wines, Mumbai and duty free shops of Mumbai airport, movie tickets, regular hair salon and grocery expenditure," the affidavit said. "Expenditure on purchases of branded shoes, beauty products, purchase of clothes from branded showrooms in India, Islamabad and Rome, online shopping, online payments in foreign currency towards SAT/college board entrance examinations in US, UK universities for admissions," it added. "Shopping expenses in Pakistan, Kuwait, US, Canada, Europe have been noticed in credit card expenses, raises serious doubts about the nature of social work being undertaken by Setalvad from the funds received from various donors in CJP," the affidavit said. It also gave details of personal expenses made by her husband from the funds of Sabrang Trust. Setalvad termed the allegations distasteful and said, "Only reimbursements sanctioned by the trustees towards credit card payments were those which met the objectives of the trust and that the deliberate listing of personal expenses displayed distastefully in the public domain by the state of Gujarat (shoes, holidays, liquor, salon expenses etc) were all incurred from personal income." Gujarat Police appeared to return the favour for her continuous litigation against the state government on the riot cases when it doubted her role as a human rights activist. Setalvad had told the police that she had received over Rs 6 lakh (10,000 euros) in her personal account in 2003 along with the 'Nuremberg Human Rights Award 2003' for her exemplary commitment to human rights. The police said, "Gujarat riots took place in February 2002. Setalvad and her husband were unknown in the field of human rights till 2003 and their NGOs got active, as stated by them, in 2003-04."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cops-say-Teesta-pocketed-crores-bought-booze-shoes-she-denies/articleshow/46239639.cms
bulbul Newbie

bulbul

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@ Texan, you forgot to highlight most critical part In article. Why Union HRD ministry gives 1.4 crores to a NGO or its communication wing?

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