The Supreme Court on Saturday granted interim protection to activist Teesta Setalvad, whose regular bail was rejected by the Gujarat High Court today in a case of the alleged fabrication of evidence in relation to the 2002 Gujarat riots. A three-judge bench of the apex court, comprised of Justices BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, and Dipankar Datta, held a special hearing at 9.15 pm to address the petition filed by social activist Teesta Setalvad.
Senior advocate CU Singh began arguments on behalf of Setalvad as the hearing began. Singh told the apex court that she was granted interim bail on September 22 of last year and has not violated any bail conditions.
The Supreme Court noted that she had been out on bail for ten months and questioned the urgency of her arrest.
“Will the skies fall if interim protection granted… We are taken by surprise by what the High Court has done. What is the alarming urgency?” enquired the Supreme Court, Live Law reported.
In response, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Gujarat government, stated that “the petitioner maligned the entire nation, the entire state, not only inside the country, but also outside the country. It is not just about one person. These are offences against the nation’s integrity,” according to the report.
The High Court had ordered Setalvad to surrender immediately earlier today. However, a two-judge Supreme Court bench comprised of Justices Abhay S Oka and Prashant Kumar Mishra expressed conflicting views on granting Setalvad interim protection. As a result, the case was referred to the Chief Justice of India, who convened a larger bench to hear the matter.
Setalvad, ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, and former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar were arrested in June last year in connection with an Ahmedabad crime branch police case. In the case, evidence was allegedly fabricated in order to falsely implicate innocent people in post-Godhra riots cases.
After an FIR was filed against them under Indian Penal Code sections 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 194 (fabricating false evidence with the intent to obtain a conviction for a capital offence), the three accused were apprehended.
A trial court denied Sreekumar’s request for discharge in the case last month. The Gujarat High Court has also granted Sreekumar interim bail in the case. Bhatt, the third accused in the case, has not applied for bail. Bhatt was already in jail for another case when he was arrested in this one.
READ | Gujarat Riots: Activist Teesta Setalvad’s Bail Plea Rejected, High Court Asks Her To Surrender
The case against Setalvad and the two others was filed following the Supreme Court’s decision in the Zakia Jafri case on June 24.
The Supreme Court rejected a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was killed during the riots, stating that “it appears to us that a concerted effort of disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge.”
The apex court granted Setalvad interim bail on September 2, 2022.
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