A local court on Tuesday concluded the hearing and reserved its order on social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand’s anticipatory bail pleas in connection with the Gulbarg society fund embezzlement case.
Ahmedabad city sessions court judge H.C. Vora reserved the order which is likely to be pronounced on March 25.
Opposing the bail plea, special public prosecutor Ajay Choksi told the court that Ms. Setalvad had allegedly used the foreign funds for personal use.
“She (Setalvad) has spent a good amount of funds on grocery items, to watch cinema or even to take beauty-parlour services,” Mr. Choksi told the court.
“Lakhs of rupees from the fund were deducted from her NGOs’ accounts,” he further said while arguing that the funds were meant for the riot victims.
He also said that the applicant spent a good amount of these funds to purchase wine at an airport shop.
“They claim that they have approximately spent Rs two crore behind the legal expenditure, while in the scrutiny it has come out that only Rs 2 lakh have been spent,” he informed the court.
The prosecutor also said that Ms. Setalvad was unnecessarily dragging Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s name in the riots case and that she had been betraying Muslims.
Ms. Setalvad’s counsel contended that the prosecution agency went beyond its scope of investigation as it is charity commissioner’s duty to look into it.
“If the state is so sensitive for the Muslims, then it would have not let ‘2002’ happen,” advocate S.M. Vora, representing Ms. Setalvad, said.
He also argued that the prosecution could not show any evidence about irregularities.
