Ahmedabad (Gujarat): The Gujarat High Court on Saturday directed social activist Teesta Setlavad to surrender immediately after rejecting her regular bail plea in a case related to the alleged fabrication of evidence to frame innocent people in 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.
Teesta Setalvad is currently out of jail after she secured interim bail. However, Justice Nirzar Desai rejected Setalvad's bail plea and directed her to surrender immediately. The court in its order noted that as the applicant is out on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court, she is directed to surrender immediately.
The High Court also refused to stay the order for a period of 30 days as sought by Setalvad's lawyer after the pronouncement of the order. On June 24, 2022, Setalvad was taken into custody along with former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar and ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a case registered by Ahmedabad crime branch police for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in the post-Godhra riots cases.
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On June 30, 2022, a sessions court in Ahmedabad rejected the bail applications of Setalvad and Sreekumar in the case, saying their release will send a message to wrongdoers that a person can level allegations with impunity and get away with it. On August 3, 2022, the Gujarat High Court issued a notice to the state government on the bail plea of Setalvad and fixed the matter for hearing on September 19. Meanwhile, Setalvad moved the Apex Court for interim bail after the HC refused to consider her plea for the same.
On September 2, 2022, the Supreme Court granted Setalvad interim bail and asked her to surrender her passport with the trial court till the time the Gujarat HC decided her regular bail plea. The SC had also asked Setalvad to cooperate with the probe agency. Setalvad walked out of jail on September 3, 2022.
The case against Setalvad and two others was registered days after the June 24 verdict of the Supreme Court in the Zakia Jafri case. While dismissing the petition filed by Zakia Jafri whose husband and former Congress Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri was killed during the riots, the SC had said that it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the state of Gujarat along with others was to create a sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge.
The SC had also said that all those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceed in accordance with the law. The 2002 Gujarat riots were triggered by the torching of a coach of Sabarmati Express by a mob near Godhra station on February 27 that year. 59 passengers, mostly Hindu Karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, were charred to death in the incident.
In May 2023, the trial court rejected Sreekumar's plea for discharge in the case. Sreekumar is also out on interim bail granted by Gujarat HC. Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has not applied for bail. Bhatt was already in jail for another criminal matter when he was arrested in this case.
Police had registered a case against Setalvad and the others under sections 468, 471 (forgery), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence), 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) of the Indian Penal Code.
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