Teesta in the dock – Ex-aide files criminal case over e-mail account hacking

In a major blow to social activist Teesta Setalvad, her former close associate Rais Khan Pathan has filed a criminal complaint against her for hacking his e-mail accounts and “doctoring” the affidavits filed by certain witnesses of post-Godhra riot, which rocked the State in 2002.

Khan had recently petitioned the special investigation team (SIT) and the Supreme Court to be given an opportunity to submit how Teesta influenced the witnesses to file false affidavits in courts.

In his complaint to the police commissioner of Ahmedabad under Sections 65, 66 and 72 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, Khan on Thursday said he worked for six years as coordinator of Teesta’s Mumbai-based NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), and was sacked in January 2008 after he refused to carry out certain orders “which were not in the interest of communal harmony”.

In his complaint, Khan stated, “I used to get instructions from Teesta Setalvad related to various riot cases pending in Gujarat on my following e-mail accounts — [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].”

Denying the allegations levelled against him by Namuniya Rasulmiya Malik, a star witness in the Naroda Gain and Madina Banu rape cases, that he (Rais Khan) had tampered with the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, Khan submitted, “I wish to state that these affidavits were not prepared by me and were sent to me by Teesta Setalvad from Mumbai for obtaining the signatures of witnesses. I used to get e-mails in my above-mentioned accounts from Teesta from her following e-mail accounts — teestateesta@rediffmailcom, [email protected] and [email protected].”

Khan went on to add that the passwords for his first two e-mail accounts were “azizkhan” and that Teesta knew this fact. “The password for my third account was not given to me by Teesta,” he said.

Khan alleged that a day before he was abruptly sacked from the CJP on January 1, 2008, Teesta changed the password of his e-mail accounts. “She hacked into my e-mail accounts and I am not aware whether she is still operating these accounts in my name or not,” he said.

Khan said, “In my opinion, she has violated Section 65 (tampering with computer source documents), Section 66 (hacking into a computer system), Section 72 (breach of confidentiality and privacy) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.”

He claimed that any proper investigation would reveal that Teesta was not only involved in the hacking, “but almost all affidavits were drafted and sent by her to me only for obtaining the signatures”.

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