Activist Teesta Setalvad, husband likely to be arrested today

Gujarat Police personnel on Thursday reached the Mumbai residence of social activists Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand who are likely to be arrested anytime now for the alleged embezzlement of money meant for the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Earlier in the day, the Gujarat High Court rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by Setalvad, Anand and others in the case of the alleged embezzlement of over Rs 1.5 crore.

Justice JB Pardiwala had on January 30 reserved the order on the bail petitions filed by Setalvad, Anand, Tanvir Jafri (whose father and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots) and Firoz Gulzar, a resident of the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad.

At the last hearing, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who appeared for the prosecution, had put before the court the statements of Setalvad's former accountant Rais Khan who accused her and others of misusing the funds meant for the families of the Gulberg Society riot victims.

Setalvad, who has been espousing the causes of the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots, has contended that the case was filed against them with political motives and they had not misused the funds. On March 25, 2014, the sessions court had rejected their pre-arrest bail applications.