The Supreme Court has extended the interim protection given to activist Teesta Setalvad in a case of the alleged fabrication of evidence in relation to the 2002 Gujarat riots. Supreme Court has posted the matter for hearing on July 19.
Earlier on July 1, the apex court protected Setalvad from arrest and stayed for a week the high court order.
During the hearing, the three-judge bench had questioned the denial of time to Setalvad to appeal against the high court’s July 1 order, saying even an ordinary criminal is entitled to some form of interim relief.
“In ordinary circumstances, we would not have considered such a request. However, it is to be noted that after the FIR was registered against the petitioner on June 25, 2022 and the petitioner was arrested.
“This court considering the application for grant of interim bail had granted the same on certain conditions, vide order dated September 2, 2022 . One of the factors that weighed with this court was that the petitioner was a lady and as such entitled to special protection under Section 437 CrPC,” the bench had noted in its order.
“We find that, taking into consideration this fact, the single judge ought to have granted at least some protection so that the petitioner has sufficient time to challenge the order passed by the single judge before this court.
“In that view of the matter, without considering anything on merits of the matter, finding that the single judge was not correct in granting even some protection, we grant a stay of the impugned order passed by the high court for a period of one week from today,” it had said.
The apex court had said the registry shall obtain orders from the Chief Justice of India for listing Setalvad’s bail plea before an appropriate bench.
Setalvad was out of jail after having secured interim bail from the apex court in September last year. She 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 (Modi)”.
