2002 Gujarat riots case: Activist Teesta Setalvad gets interim bail

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim bail to activist Teesta Setalvad in a case where she was arrested for allegedly fabricating documents to frame innocent people in the 2002 Gujarat riots cases. While granting interim bail to Setalvad, the Apex Court said, "In our view, Activist Teesta Setalvad is entitled to the release on interim bail. She shall render complete cooperation in the pending investigation, and asks her to surrender her passport."

The Court said it has considered the matter only from the standpoint of interim bail and the Gujarat High Court shall decide Teesta Setalvad’s bail plea independently and uninfluenced by any observations made by this court. 

The top court was hearing a petition of Setalvad seeking interim bail in a case in which she was arrested for allegedly fabricating documents to frame innocent people in the 2002 Gujarat riots cases. Earlier, the top court 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 affidavit stated that systematic efforts were made to ensure that both oral and other evidence is fabricated.

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Setalvad 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 September 19. Setalvad and Sreekumar had approached the High Court after their bail applications were rejected by the Ahmedabad city sessions court. 

On July 30, the Ahmedabad sessions court refused to grant bail to Setalvad and Sreekumar, noting that the accused appeared to have aimed to "destabilise" the Gujarat government and defame the state for their ulterior motives. 

They were arrested by the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch on June 25 based on a First Information Report (FIR) registered against them under sections 468 (forgery for cheating) and 194 (fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction for capital offences) of the Indian Penal Code. The SIT formed to probe the case has alleged that Setalvad and Sreekumar were part of a larger conspiracy carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel to destabilise the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Narendra Modi who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time. 

Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt is also an accused in the case. The FIR against Setalvad, Sreekumar and Bhatt was registered after the Supreme Court had on June 24 dismissed the plea filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging the clean chit given by the SIT to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several others in 2002 Gujarat riots. Ehsan Jafri was among 69 people killed during the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad violence on February 28, 2002. 

Zakia Jafri has challenged the SIT’s clean chit to 64 people including Narendra Modi who was the Gujarat Chief Minister during the riots in the State. She had alleged a "larger conspiracy" behind the post-Godhra incident riots. 

However, the SIT in the apex court had opposed the plea of Jafri saying there is a sinister plot behind the complaint to probe the "larger conspiracy" behind the 2002 Gujarat riots and the original complaint by Jafri was directed by Teesta Setalvad, who levelled allegations just to keep the pot boiling.