The Suཧpreme Court today rejected pleas of social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband against freezing of their bank accounts in a case of alleged misappropriation of funds received by their NGOs for the 2002 Gujarat riot victims.
A bench comprising Chief Jus꧟ti﷽ce Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar said the pleas are dismissed.
Setalvad, her husband Javed Anand and their two NGOs -- Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice an🦂d Peace -- had challenged the October 7, 2015 verdict of the Gujarat High Court rejecting their pleas of defreezing of their personal banꦏk accounts.
While reserving the verdict on July 5, the top court had questioned the sourc🍌e of money in the bank accounts of Setalvad and others which were frozen by the Ahmedabad Police in 2015 after allegations of misappropriation surfaced.
The Gujarat g🀅overnment had alleged that the activist couple had siphoned the money collected in the name of victims for "personal use" like wining and dining and the activist had claimed that the action against them was "completely malafide".
The state govt had alleged that they had spent the money received in the name of victims in "liquor, movies, food, personal items and Blacജkberry phones".
The act🐼ivist couple had countered the charges and said the money spent does not belong to the government and there was no complainant who had said he or she 🗹has been cheated.
One of the resident꧋s of Gulberg society, Firoz Khan Pathan, had filed a complaint against Setalvad and others al🌠leging that money was raised to make a museum at Gulberg Society in the memory of 69 people killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots, but it had not been utilised for the purpose.
The freezing of the acco♊unts by Ahmedabad Police had come soon after its crime branch had started probing a case in which Setalvad and others were accused of embezzling Rs 1.51 crore collected to convert Gulbarg Society into a museum.
The high court had upheld the verdict of a lower court in this re🎃gard observing that the probe was at a serious point in the alleged case of Gulbarg society fund embezzlement.
Besides the fund embezzlement case against the couple, the Gujarat police had also loಌdged another case of FCRA violation against them.
PTI
