A group of progressive organizations and several prominent writers and intellectuals on Sunday demonstrated on the steps of the Town Hall against the arrest of activist Teesta Setalvad and former IPS officer RB Sreekumar in connection with the Gujarat riots conspiracy case.
Linguist GN Davy said no one has been arrested for the murder of former MP Ehsan Jafri during the riots, but Ms Setalvad or others’ support for Zakia Jafri’s fight for justice cannot be considered a “conspiracy”. .
“It will affect those who depend on the courts to fight for justice,” he said. “It is certainly not in the spirit of the law of the land to initiate action of the State after an observation made in the Court,” he said.
“The targeting of human rights activists and those who speak against the current regime is an attack on our democratic and constitutional principles. We stand with them and demand their immediate release,” Bahutva Karnataka, an alliance of several progressive organisations, said in a statement.