The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to activist Teesta Setalvad stating her custodial interrogation is no longer necessary. The court said that the evidence required for the alleged fabrication of evidence linked to the 2002 Gujarat riots case is already in possession of the prosecution, thus ruling out any possibility of tampering.
The apex court has directed Setalvad not to contact any witnesses and to maintain distance from them. Additionally, the Supreme Court has quashed the orders of the Gujarat High Court.
The bench further granted the Gujarat Police liberty to approach the Supreme Court directly in case any attempt is made to influence witnesses in the case.
The SC was hearing a plea of Setalvad against the Gujarat High Court order dismissing her bail in the case. The apex court had extended interim protection from arrest till July 19.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna and Dipankar Datta had issued a notice to the Gujarat government on Setalvad’s appeal against the Gujarat High Court order. “Issue notice returnable on July 19, 2023. Whatever documents parties want to place on record shall be filed prior to July 15 after exchanging with each other. Interim order to continue until further orders,” the bench said.
In June last year, Teesta Setalvad, along with two others — former Director General of Police (DGP) RB Sreekumar and ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt — were arrested by the city crime branch on charges of forgery and the fabrication of false evidence, with the alleged purpose of securing convictions for capital offenses related to the 2002 riots cases.
Following her arrest, Setalvad was later granted bail.
However, on July 1, the Gujarat High Court rejected her bail plea and ordered her immediate surrender. The court’s decision came as it observed her alleged attempts to undermine the then democratically-elected government and tarnish the image of the then chief minister and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
SIT Probe
According to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe, Setalvad was allegedly involved in a larger conspiracy, which was orchestrated at the direction of the late Congress leader, Ahmed Patel. The purported objective of this conspiracy was to destabilise the then ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, led by then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the aftermath of the post-Godhra riots in 2002.
As per the allegations, Patel facilitated a payment of Rs 30 lakh to Setalvad, which was purportedly utilised for the said purpose.
An FIR was lodged against them after the Supreme Court dismissed the plea filed by Zakia Jafri. Zakia Jafri is the widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the riots. On February 28, 2002, during the violence that erupted in Ahmedabad after the Godhra train burning incident, Ehsan Jafri was one of the 68 people who lost their lives in the Gulberg Society massacre.
In the aftermath of the riots, a total of 1,044 people were killed, mostly Muslims. According to information provided by the Central government to the Rajya Sabha in May 2005, out of the total fatalities, 254 were Hindus and 790 were Muslims.
The plea by Jafri had accused a “larger conspiracy” related to the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, implicating the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 63 others. However, the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit given by the SIT to Modi and the 63 co-accused individuals.
“At the end of the day, it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the 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 Supreme Court judgement observed.
“The falsity of their claims had been fully exposed by the SIT after a thorough investigation…As a matter of fact, all those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceed in accordance with law,” it said.
Comments
0 comment