A day after arrested journalist-activist Teesta Setalvad was arrested from Mumbai, a special probe has been initiated into her arrest. On Sunday, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe the case against her. The SIT will be headed by Gujarat ATS (Anti-Terror Squad) and besides Teesta Setalvad, the SIT will also investigate former IPS officers RB Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt. All three have been accused of fabricating evidence in the Gujarat riots which happened in 2002 when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister.  

According to PTI, the SIT will be headed by the Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of Gujarat ATS Deepan Bhadran and will have the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Ahmedabad Crime Branch, and Superintendent of Police of Gujarat ATS as its members. Speaking to PTI, DIG Bhadran said that the investigation will be carried out by the Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Ahmedabad Special Operations Group. 

On Saturday, the Ahmedabad crime branch arrested Setalvad after she was detained from Mumbai. After arresting her, the crime branch had also arrested former Gujarat DGP Sreekumar while the officials had initiated the process to get a transfer warrant for custody of Bhatt, who has been serving a life sentence in a custodial death case at Palanpur prison. Earlier, an FIR was registered against the trio after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the clean chit given by the SIT to the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Setalvad, Sreekumar, and Bhatt have been accused of abusing the process of law by conspiring to fabricate the evidence in an attempt to frame innocent people for an offence punishable with capital punishment in connection with the riots. As per the FIR, Setalvad, along with Zakia Jaffri, the wife of slain Congress MLA Eshan Jaffri, had moved several petitions to the Supreme Court alleging a larger conspiration in the Gujarat riots and they were also accused of giving false information to the Special Investigation Team (SIT), that was probing the riots.  

All the accused have been booked under sections 468 - forgery for purpose of cheating, 471- using forged documents as genuine, 194 - giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of a capital offence and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. Setalvad's arrest has gained more spotlight as it has come on the same day when Union Home Minister Amit Shah slammed her for giving baseless information to the police regarding the riots. 

In an interview with ANI on Saturday- June 25, Amit Shah said, "The affidavits of several victims (of the Gujarat riots) were signed by an NGO run by Teesta Setalvad, and the victims did not even know about this. Her NGO got support from the Union government run by the UPA. All this was done only to target Narendra Modi." He further said that Setalvad's NGO had submitted applications to the police stations against the BJP workers and they were sought as truth.