The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim bail to rights activist Teesta Setalvad in a case in which she was arrested for allegedly fabricating documents to frame innocent people in the 2002 Gujarat riots cases. The apex court directed Setalvad to surrender her passport till the matter is considered by the High Court.
We have considered the matter only from the standpoint of interim bail… Thus, we grant Teesta Setalvad interim bail,” the bench stated in its order.
It added, “The entire matter on merits shall be considered by the High Court independently and uninfluenced by any observations made by this court. It is clarified that the order passed considering facts including that she is a lady and shall not be used by other accused and submissions of other accused be considered purely on their merits.”
The order of the apex court came on a plea of Setalvad seeking interim bail. She has approached the top court against the August 3 order of the Gujarat High Court which issued notice to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) seeking its response to bail applications filed by Setalvad and former Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) RB Sreekumar and posted the hearing on 19 September.
Yesterday, the apex court bench took objection on the conduct of the Gujarat High Court where the High Court had issued a notice of Setalvad’s plea on August 3 but posted the matter for further hearing after six weeks on 19 September. The court had asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for Gujarat to give it a case where a lady is in confinement on charges like this and the High Court has given a date after six weeks and asked if is the normal pattern in bail cases like this.
Mehta today produced orders passed by High Courts in which long dates were given saying that Setalvad was not singled out and this has been the uniform practice in High Court in similar cases. Solicitor General argued that there is sufficient material apart from FIR pointing towards the involvement of Setalvad in the offences alleged.
Appearing for Teesta senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the person who is forced must come and file the FIR, but here it is the State which is filing the FIR. “This is malicious, this is motivated. These affidavits are not filed in these cases, these are filed in some other cases. These are affidavits filed before the Supreme Court supporting NHRC petition for transfer,” Sibal said
Earlier, the Gujarat government filed an affidavit and told the apex court there is a strong case made out against Setalvad for some of the most serious offences whereby criminal conspiracy was hatched for and by fabricating false evidence with a clear intention to get a conviction of several persons for capital punishment 2002 Gujarat riots.
The affidavit of the Gujarat government has stated that the FIR against Setalvad for falsifying evidence related to the riots, is not solely based on a top court judgment but is backed by evidence.
The Gujarat High Court on 3 August had issued a notice to the state government on the bail plea of Setalvad and fixed the matter for hearing on September 19. An Ahmedabad sessions court had on 30 July rejected the bail applications of Setalvad and former Director General of Police R.B. Sreekumar in the case, saying that if they were released, it will send a message to wrongdoers that a person can level allegations with impunity and get away with it.