2002 Gujarat Riots: Activist Teesta Setalvad Gets Bail In Document Forgery Case

Activist Teesta Setalvad has been granted bail by the Supreme Court after nearly a year of her arrest in an evidence fabrication case related to the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The Supreme Court has granted bail to activist Teesta Setalvad in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence in relation to the 2002 Gujarat riots. The Gujarat High Court had earlier refused to grant her regular bail. Dismissing the Gujarat High Court's order, an SC bench, comprising Justices BR Gavai, AS Bopanna and Dipankar Datta, on Wednesday said the HC's order was "perverse" and "contradictory", reported legal news website Live Law.

"On one hand, the learned judge has spent pages to observe how it is not necessary rather nor permissible at the stage of bail to consider
whether a prima facie case is made out or not. The learned judge, interestingly, observed that since the petitioner has neither challenged the FIR or chargesheet in proceedings under Section 482 CrPC or Articles 226 or 32 of the Constitution, it is not permissible for her to say that a prima facie case is not made out," Live Law quoted the bench as saying. 

"If observation of the judge is taken then no bail plea can be decided pre trial unless the charge sheet etc is challenged under sections 226 or 32. To say the least, the High Court finding is perverse," legal news website Bar and Bench quoted the SC. 

The SC said that it considered the possibility of Setalvad influencing witnesses, tampering evidence, and fleeing before granting her bail. While asking the Gujarat Police to directly approach it if any attempt is made to influence witnesses in the case, the SC observed that her passport had earlier been surrendered to the sessions court and will remain in its custody.

Setalvad was arrested in June last year along with former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar and ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in an offence registered by Ahmedabad crime branch police for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame “innocent people” in the post-Godhra riots cases.

In its judgment, the high court had observed that prima facie Setalvad used her close associates and riot victims to file "false and fabricated affidavits before the Supreme Court with a view to unseat the establishment and to tarnish the image of establishment and the then chief minister [Narendra Modi]".