December 2, 2016
Press Release
Gujarat police recycling spiced-up allegations without a
shred of evidence
We refer to reports appearing in a section of the media
today about the Gujarat police having filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court
alleging that Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand have embezzled nearly Rs 3.85
crore out of the Rs. 9.75 crore trust funds meant for the welfare of the
victims-survivors of the 2002 communal carnage in Gujarat.
The Trustees of Citizens for Justice and Peace and Sabrang
Trust, as also Teesta and Javed (both of whom are part of the Board of Trustees
of the two independent trusts) have repeatedly and emphatically denied the
charges against the two of them as baseless and politically motivated. We
reiterate the same now.
While regurgitating its allegation that Teesta Setalvad and
Javed Anand have embezzled nearly Rs 3.85 crore out of the Rs. 9.75 crore trust
funds meant for welfare of the victims-survivors of the 2002 communal carnage
in Gujarat, the state police has chosen to completely ignore the over 20,000
pages of documentary evidence submitted to them in refutation of the charges and
simply recycled old allegations without a shred of evidence in support.
Among the over voluminous documentary evidence submitted to
the Gujarat police and in the courts are copies of grant agreements with donor organisations
from which it is evident that during the relevant period neither CJP nor
Sabrang Trust ever applied/ appealed for or received grants/donations intended
for the financial assistance of any kind to the victims-survivors of the 2002
communal carnage in Gujarat.
CJP did apply/appeal for grants/donations to provide Free Legal
Aid to the survivors/eye-witnesses in their search for justice and punishment
to the perpetrators of the mass crimes in 2002. CJP’s Trustees are fully satisfied
with the role the organisation was able to play in securing unprecedented, even
historic, verdicts in favour of the survivors in the Trial Courts in Mumbai
(Best Bakery Case) and Gujarat, Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court.
In 2008, with the concurrence of the Members of the Gulberg
Housing Society, Ahmedabad, Sabrang Trust did try to raise funds for building a
‘Gulberg Resistance Memorial’ but the project had to be abandoned in 2012 due
to insufficient funds. The total amount of about Rs. 4.6 lakh received as
donation for the Memorial is still reflected in the Trust’s audited balance
sheet as earmarked, unutilised fund.
Thus, there is absolutely no basis to the allegation that
the two trusts raised “huge funds” in the name of the victims of 2002 but the
victims received nothing while Teesta and Javed swallowed a large chunk of the funds
collected.
On a notice from the Gujarat police, in April 2014 the auditors
of the two independent trusts filed reports and subsequently gave statements to
the Gujarat police categorically stating that they had found no financial
irregularities whatsoever either during the annual audits or during their
“re-verification” of the accounts and related documents of the respective
trusts following the police notice.
The present affidavit has been filed by the Gujarat police
in the Supreme Court in response to the separate petitions filed by CJP,
Sabrang Trust, Teesta and Javed for the de-freezing of the accounts of two
trusts, and also the personal accounts of Teesta and Javed, through an illegal
order of Gujarat police in January 2014.
The only new element in the current affidavit is this. The Gujarat
police are now also alleging embezzlement of amounts from the grant Sabrang
Trust received from the HRD Ministry. We categorically deny the new and equally
baseless allegation. To the best of our knowledge, the HRD ministry itself has
made no such claim, at least till date.
Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand and the two trusts are in the
process of preparing a detailed response to and rebuttal of each and every
allegation made by the Gujarat police. The same will be submitted in the Supreme
Court in the coming days.
Attached with this statement is a chart prepared by us
showing the receipt of funds by the two trusts and their utilisation during the relevant period.
Teesta Setalvad Javed
Anand