AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court on Saturday rejected the regular bail plea of Mumbai-based social activist Teesta Setalvad and directed her to surrender immediately in a case pertaining to the alleged fabrication of evidence to frame innocent people in 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.
So far, Setalvad has been protected from arrest by an interim bail issued by the Supreme Court in September 2022.
Setalvad's lawyer, Mihir Thakore, requested that Justice Nirzar Desai stay the execution of the verdict 30 days so that she might appeal to the Supreme Court, as she has been out on interim bail for nearly a year. However, Justice Desai denied the request.
Attorney of Teesta Setalvad Mihir Thakore told TNIE that "We applied for regular bail today, but the court denied our request."
On June 24 2022, the Supreme Court denied a plea filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was killed during the riots, challenging the SIT's clean chit awarded to then-chief minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 Godhra riots cases,
While dismissing the petition the Supreme Court stated, "It appears to us that a concerted effort of disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat, together with others, was to create a sensation by making revelations that were false to their own knowledge."
Soon after the Supreme Court verdict, Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) filed an FIR against Activist Teesta Setalvad, former Director General of Police R B Sreekumar, and Former IPS Sanjeev Bhatt for plotting to falsely implicate innocent persons in the Gujarat riots of 2002.
Setalvad and co-accused R B Sreekumar were taken into custody by Gujarat police on June 25, 2022, She was kept in police remand for seven days and was sent to judicial custody on July 2. Setlvad was granted bail in September 2022.
Setalvad, Sreekumar, and Sanjiv Bhatt were accused of abusing the process of law by conspiring to fabricate evidence and frame innocent people for an offence punishable by capital punishment.
Sanjiv Bhatt is currently lodged in jail after being convicted of life imprisonment in a custodial death case. While R B Sreekumar is out on bail, on June 19, 2023, the Ahmedabad sessions court Rejected Sreekumar’s plea seeking his discharge in a case registered against him.
She walked out of jail in September 2022 after being granted relief by the apex court.
Setalvad and the other two were subsequently booked under Indian Penal Code sections 468, 471 (forgery), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offense), 211 (institute criminal proceedings to cause injury), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture), and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy)
The court of Justice Nirzar Desai rejected Setalvad's bail plea and directed her to surrender immediately as she is already out of jail after securing interim bail.