Supreme Court grants interim bail to activist Teesta Setalvad

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 casesWhile 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 passportThe Court said it has considered the matter only from the standpoint of interim bail and the Gujarat High Court shall decide Teesta Setalvads bail plea independently and uninfluenced by any observations made by this courtThe 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 casesEarlier 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 riotsThe 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 evidenceSystematic efforts were made to ensure that both oral and other evidence is fabricated the affidavit statedSetalvad 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 19Setalvad and Sreekumar had approached the High Court after their bail applications were rejected by the Ahmedabad city sessions courtAlso Read SC objects to Gujarat HC order on long adjournment of Teesta Setalvads bail pleaOn July 30 the Ahmedabad sessions court refused to grant bail to Setalvad and Sreekumar while noting that the accused appeared to have aimed to destabilise the Gujarat government and defame the state for their ulterior motivesThey were arrested by the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch on June 25 on the basis of 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 CodeThe 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 timeFormer IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt is also an accused in the caseThe 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 riotsEhsan Jafri was among 69 people killed during the violence at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28 2002 Zakia Jafri has challenged the SITs clean chit to 64 people including Narendra Modi who was the Gujarat Chief Minister during the riots in the StateShe had alleged a larger conspiracy behind the postGodhra incident riotsHowever 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 boilingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever