November 21, 2024

Gujarat Riots: The 'Larger Conspiracy' Charge Falls Flat

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-06-27 08:34:49

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There were two things which were prominent in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots case. The first was the administrative apathy in providing justice and relief to the victims and the second was the involvement of NGOs to help the victims get such justice and relief. For those NGOs that work with riot victims, it is always an uphill task to get justice for them especially if the administration is unwilling and creates hurdles. Hence it was that when several NGOs, including Citizens for Justice & Peace, the NGO helmed by journalist and activist Teesta Setalvad, jumped in to take up the cases of riot victims in the hope of getting them justice and relief, it was beneficial for the victims.

There is no doubt that the NGOs did commendable work which provided succour to a large number of riot victims. It was entirely due to their combined efforts that the Supreme Court took several steps to ensure that the state administration could not create hurdles when cases were filed, heard and disposed of by courts, sometimes outside Gujarat to prevent bias. But now when the Supreme Court has said in its latest order that some of these NGOs, along with some "disgruntled" state officials were guilty of making false claims that abused the process and took the investigation off track. It has found their role so disconcerting that it has called for them to be put in the dock and be proceeded against as per law. The highest court in the land would not have made this remark in its order in a cursory manner. It must have found their role illegal and disturbing on the basis of evidence on record to say so.

Hence it is that the arrest of Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar is not surprising (the other official Sanjiv Bhatt is already in jail in another case).  Although the FIR filed against them draws heavily on what the Supreme Court said, it has to be noted that in the end any punishment meted out to them would not only depend on what the Supreme Court said but on evidence that they knowingly filed false FIRs or knowingly made false statements under oath. The arrest is just the first step - after all the administration cannot ignore the remarks made by the Supreme Court against them. But it has now got to prove that they actually performed illegal acts that abused the process of law. The law has to take its own course but it has to be ensured that Setalvad, Sreekumar, Bhat and others who might be drawn into the net are treated fairly.