New Delhi: Condemning the arrest of Teesta Setalvad, journalist and activist, and R.B. Sreekumar, former DGP of Gujarat Police, by Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad, writers, rights activists, former bureaucrats, academics, among others have called for their immediate release.
As many as 2,200 of them from across India and the world issued an open statement on June 27, Monday condemning both the arrests and criticising the Supreme Court for observations made while dismissing the petition filed by Zakia Jafri to look into the “conspiracy” that led to communal violence in Gujarat in 2002.
The signatories of the statement slammed the “naked and brazen attempt to silence and criminalise” those who stand for constitutional values.
“We demand that this false and vindictive FIR be taken back unconditionally and Teesta Setalvad and others detained under this FIR be released immediately,” they demanded.
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Speaking of what these arrests ominously portend, the signatories said, “It seeks to deter citizens from holding the state accountable for enabling violence in future and in effect conveys that the state can do no wrong. If you point out that the emperor has no clothes, you open yourself up to arrest and criminalisation.”
“This is the implicit message going out to all in Indian civil society, to the public at large and the Gujarat Judiciary before which there are ongoing criminal cases of the violence of 2002 in the various courts of the state.”
On the verdict delivered by the Supreme Court dismissing Jafri’s petition, the signatories said it “deepens the sense of injustice and marks a moment of profound hurt and loss as far as all those who care about constitutional values”.
“The ordinary process of litigation to make the state accountable by establishing the guilt of those accused of serious crimes is tarred with the criminal brush.”
The signatories of the letter include general secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) V. Suresh; National Alliance of People’s Movements convenor Medha Patkar; columnist Apoorvanand, theatre and film actor Shabana Azmi; writer Aakar Patel; Member of Parliament Kumar Ketkar; former Indian Navy chief Admiral Ramdas; writer and former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed; former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Rooprekha Verma; Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan founder Aruna Roy; Carnatic musician TM Krishna; poet Gauhar Raza; Shabnam Hashmi; Feroze Mithiborwala; Bharat Bachao Andolan’s Pratibha Shinde; among others.
Some of them took part in protests on Monday, June 27, in various cities and towns, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Patna, Ranchi, Ajmer, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Kolkata, Lucknow, Allahabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dhulia, Raipur, among others.