Teesta's NGO slams licence suspension

Says 'mala fide' action aimed to nail it

Teesta Setalvad-led Sabrang Trust has challenged the grounds on which the Union Home Ministry has suspended its licence to collect foreign funds, saying the “mala fide” action was the continuation of the measures taken by the Gujarat Police to nail them.

In a 24-page response to the show cause notice issued on September 10, the NGO expressed “shock and surprise” at the order, which has “completely ignored the detailed point by point” response that Sabrang Trust had submitted to the ministry earlier.

“We wish to make it known that we are already subject to what we believe is a malicious investigation at the hands of the Gujarat Police on the registration of an innocuous FIR against two trustees of Citizens for Justice and Peace and Sabrang Trust, consequent to which we have been subject to a thorough financial examination on various relevant and irrelevant issues,” it said.

Saying the matter is currently pending in the Supreme Court, the NGO said it has “reasons to believe that these actions by the MHA are part and parcel of this continued action, since no discrepancies and violations could be found through the entire Gujarat Police Crime Branch investigations.”
 
No unfreezing of accounts: HC
The Gujarat HC on Wednesday rejected the plea by social activist Teesta Setalvad to remove the freeze on the bank accounts of her two organizations working with the victims of 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, DHNS reports from Ahmedabad.
The bank accounts of Citizens for Peace and Sabrang Trust, managed by Teesta and her husband Javed Anand, were frozen in wake of police investigations into the alleged siphoning off funds collected as donation for providing relief to the riot victims.
The court said that accepting the plea would interfere in the ongoing investigation.