"Case Is Suspect": Supreme Court Relief For Activist Teesta Setalvad
Teesta Setalvad is under investigation for allegedly fabricating evidence in cases related to the 2002 Gujarat riots.
New Delhi: Teesta Setalvad, an activist who had been ordered earlier this month to "surrender immediately" by the Gujarat High Court in a case involving the 2002 Gujarat riots, received significant relief on Wednesday when the Supreme Court granted her bail.
The Gujarat High Court's decision to deny her request for regular release while she was under investigation for allegedly manipulating evidence in instances involving the riots was overturned by Justices BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, and Dipankar Datta.
The charge sheet against Ms. Setalvad had been submitted, thus there was no need for a custodial questioning, the court stated in its observations. Ms. Setalvad was told by the Supreme Court, though, not to have any influence over the case's witnesses.
Justice BR Gavai questioned Ms. Setalvad's arrest at the hearing, asking her, "What were you doing up until 2022? What inquiry between June 24 and June 25 led you to the conclusion that she had committed an act so vile it called for her to be arrested?
In particularly scathing remarks, Justice Gavai noted that the Definition of Evidence Act would be rendered moot if the authorities' claims were to be accepted.
If your argument is accepted, the Definition of Evidence Act would have to be abolished.The court warned the prosecutor, "We're merely putting you on guard that if you dig deeper, we'll have to make observations.
Justice Dipankar Datta agreed and criticized the idea of keeping someone in detention until a verdict is reached.
"At first, we thought there might be a case under [Section] 194. We currently believe the Section 194 case to be suspicious. And you want someone to remain in detention while on trial until a decision is made," he continued.
The legal struggles for Ms. Setalvad started last year in earnest. Together with former Gujarat police chief RB Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, she was detained in June 2022 for allegedly using riot victims and her close friends to file "false and fabricated affidavits before the Supreme Court with a view to unseat the establishment and to tarnish the image of the establishment and the then chief minister."
On July 5, the Supreme Court prolonged Ms. Setalvad's provisional bail until the upcoming hearing on Wednesday. This choice was made in response to Ms. Setalvad's suit challenging the Gujarat High Court's directive for her to turn herself in. Her bid for standard bail had previously been rejected by the high court.
Since July 1, the Supreme Court has prevented Ms Setalvad from being arrested, putting the ruling of the high court on hold. Without addressing the case's merits, the court granted the stay but emphasized that the sole judge erred by denying Ms. Setalvad any type of protection.
Only two days had passed since the court rejected a motion by Ms. Setalvad and Zakia Jafri, whose husband Ehsan Jafri, a former MP, was slain in the riots. They had contested the results of an investigation that exonerated Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the Chief Minister during the riots, of all culpability.
Ms. Setalvad, an outspoken opponent of the previous Gujarat government, was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court, which allowed her to be released from custody in September of last year.
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