This Article is From Jul 16, 2022

"His Name Still Holds Weight": Ahmed Patel's Daughter Questions Charges

Gujarat police claimed that Ahmed Patel paid Rs 30 lakh to activist Teesta Setalvad as part of the "larger conspiracy" against Narendra Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

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India News

The SIT team accused Congress's Ahmed Patel of conspiring against Narendra Modi.

New Delhi:

In the wake of a special investigation team's allegations against Ahmed Patel, his daughter has said the Congress veteran's name "holds weight" even after his death to be used for "political conspiracies".

In a tweet, Mumtaz Patel also questioned why her father was not prosecuted for "hatching such a big conspiracy" against Narendra Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

"I guess his name @ahmedpatel  still holds weight to be used for political conspiracies to malign d opposition.Why during UPA years @TeestaSetalvad was not rewarded & made Rajya sabha membr & why the center uptil 2020 did not prosecute my father for hatching such a big conspiracy," she tweeted.

The Gujarat police had mentioned the role of Mr Patel while opposing the bail application of Ms Setalvad, who is one of the two persons arrested by Ahmedabad crime branch recently on the charge of conspiring to falsely implicate people in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The police's Special Investigation Team, in its affidavit before the sessions court, claimed that she was part of a "larger conspiracy" carried out at the behest of Ahmed Patel to dismiss the BJP government in the state after the 2002 riots.

Ms Setalvad was arrested, along with former IPS officers RB Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt, for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in Gujarat riots cases.

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"The political objective of the applicant (Setalvad) while enacting this larger conspiracy was dismissal or destabilisation of the elected government... She obtained illegal financial and other benefits and rewards from rival political party in lieu of her attempts to wrongly implicate innocent persons in Gujarat," said the SIT's affidavit.

Ms Setalvad used to meet the leaders of a "prominent national party in power at that time in Delhi to implicate names of senior leaders of the BJP government in riot cases," the SIT further claimed.

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Last month, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea challenging the clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and several others in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The plea was filed by filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was among 69 people killed during violence at the Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.

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Riots broke out across the state after 58 pilgrims were burnt alive on the Sabarmati Express train at Gujarat's Godhra Railway Station on February 27, 2002. More than 1,000 people were killed.

With inputs from agencies

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