Welcoming the stay by the Supreme Court on the arrest of rights activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand, the human Rights organisation, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), alleged that the Gujarat police’s insistence on “custodial interrogation” was a “veiled threat of third degree methods.”
Earlier this moth, the Gujarat High Court dismissed Ms. Setalvad and Mr. Anand’s plea for anticipatory bail which was stayed soon after by the Supreme Court till February 19.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, PUCL alleged that Ms. Seetalvad “is being targeted through false affairs.” Pointing out that the allegation against Ms. Setalvad and Mr. Anand in a case of alleged misappropriation of funds for a memorial at Gulberg housing society, one of the areas devastated in the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, the rights organisation claimed that there was no need of their immediate arrest.
“It is necessary also to point out that the accusation against Teesta and are not of having committed heinous offences but financial ones, all of which can be established or disapproved mainly on documentary evidences,” the PUCL statement said.
Citing the Supreme Court judgement in the case of Joginder Kumar versus State of UP, PUCL said that in the judgment the court pointed out that the arrest of person can cause “incalculable harm to his or her reputation."
