SFI stages demonstration in Kolkata demanding release of Teesta Setalvad

CPIMs student wing SFI on Wednesday staged a demonstration on the College Street campus of Presidency University here demanding the unconditional release of civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad.Around 100 activists of the Students Federation of India SFI raised slogans demanding the immediate release of Setalvad and other political prisoners.We demand that Setalvad be released immediately and false cases against her and other political prisoners withdrawn.

CPI(M)'s student wing SFI on Wednesday staged a demonstration on the College Street campus of Presidency University here demanding the unconditional release of civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad.

Around 100 activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI) raised slogans demanding the immediate release of Setalvad and other ''political prisoners''.

''We demand that Setalvad be released immediately and false cases against her and other political prisoners withdrawn. The Modi government has falsely implicated them due to political vendetta,'' SFI Presidency unit spokesperson Adrija Karak said.

''We will hold similar protests in future if Setalvad and other civil rights activists are not released immediately,'' she said. The Left parties have strongly opposed the arrest of Mumbai-based activist Teesta Setalvad by the Gujarat Police, with the CPI(M) alleging that the move is ''abhorrent'' to democratic rights of citizens.

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), who had detained Setalvad in Mumbai on Saturday, handed her over to the Ahmedabad crime branch early on Sunday in connection with a fresh case of forgery, criminal conspiracy and insulting criminal proceedings to cause injury registered against her.

The action against Setalvad had come a day after the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition challenging the clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.