Teesta denies fabricating riot victims’ affidavits

GANDHINAGAR - Activist Teesta Setalvad, general secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), has denied allegations made by a former associate that she fabricated affidavits of the 2002 Gujarat communal riot victims.

Her denial came in a counter-affidavit filed Thursday before the Justices G.T. Nanavati-Akshay Mehta enquiry commission probing the Godhra train carnage and the subsequent communal riots in Gujarat in 2002.

She refuted the charges made against her in an affidavit filed before the commission by former CJP employee, Rais Khan Pathan, who worked as field co-ordinator in Ahmedabad.

Setalvad pointed out that Pathan was removed from the services of the CJP Jan 18, 2008, by the board of trustees after complaints of misappropriation of funds.

She denied that she fabricated the affidavits filed by the riot victims and witnesses and claimed that they were given by the victims in Ahmedabad and they stood by their versions even in the affidavits filed in the Supreme Court.

She claimed that the CJP had received a number of complaints against Pathan of amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.