India Slams UN OHCHR Over Remarks on Activist Teesta Setalvad, Ex-Police Officials' Arrest

CC BY 2.0 / UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré / Session of the Human Rights Council. (File)
Session of the Human Rights Council. (File) - Sputnik International, 1920, 29.06.2022
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Secretary of the NGO Citizens of Justice and Peace Teesta Setalvad, along with Zaika Jafri, widow of Congress parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri, had filed a petition against the then-Gujarat State Chief Narendra Modi and others in the Supreme Court of India in connection to 2002 Gujarat riots.
The Indian External Affairs Ministry on Wednesday slammed the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR) for making remarks on the arrest of activist Teesta Setalvad and two others.
The ministry's official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a statement: "We have seen a comment by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding legal action against Teesta Setalvad and two other persons.”
Describing the remarks as “unwarranted”, the spokesperson said: “Authorities in India act against violations of law strictly in accordance with established judicial processes. Labelling such legal actions as persecution for activism is misleading and unacceptable.”
He also said that such remarks “constitute an interference in India’s independent judicial system.”
Earlier this week, the UN’s OHCHR had voiced concern over the arrest and detention of social activist Setalvad and two former police officials, while calling for their immediate release.
Setalvad and former police officials Sreekumar, and Sanjiv Bhatt, were arrested by Gujarat Police last week after a police complaint was filed in Ahmedabad city by a police official, Darshansinh B. Barad.
They are being accused of conspiring to fabricate facts and documents, tutoring witnesses, and abusing the process of law by fabricating false evidence to frame people, based on the submissions made before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Indian Supreme Court to investigate the 2002 Gujarat Riots.
The arrests came a day after India’s apex court dismissed the petition filed by Setalvad and Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri, in connection to 2002 riots, and gave clean chit to the then State Chief of Gujarat Narendra Modi and others.
Ehsan Jafri was killed during the riots which had erupted in Gujarat after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya was set ablaze.
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