The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim bail to social activist Teesta Setalvad. It also asked her to cooperate with the investigative agency.
Setalvad was arrested on June 25 for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame "innocent people" in the 2002 Gujarat Riots cases.
Granting her interim bail, the Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia asked Setalvad to surrender her passport with the trial court till the time the Gujarat High Court decides her regular bail petition.
The SC also said the Gujarat HC ought to have considered releasing her on interim bail during the pendency her case. A day after taking a serious view of delayed listing of Setalvad's regular bail plea in the Gujarat HC, the SC considered facts such as the woman petitioner having been in jail for over two months and subjected to custodial interrogation for seven days while ordering her release till the HC decides the regular bail petition.
Referring to the sequence of events of the case, the SC bench said the high court, while issuing the notice to the state government on the regular bail petition, should have considered the plea for grant of interim bail to her.
"Having considered the circumstances on record, in our view the high court ought to have considered the prayer for release on interim bail during the pendency of the matter," said the SC on Friday.
Setalvad and former Gujarat police chief RB Sreekumar were arrested in June. Former police officer Sanjiv Bhat, serving a life sentence in a custodial death case, is also an accused in the case. PTI earlier reported that the three are charged with Indian Penal Code's (IPC) sections 468, 471, 194, 211, 218, and 120 (B).
The IPC sections 468 amd 471 relate to forgery, 194 pertains to giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence, 211 is for instituting criminal proceedings to cause injury, 218 pertains to public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture, and 120 (B) is for criminal conspiracy.
Earlier on July 30, An Ahmedabad sessions court had rejected the bail applications of Setalvad and Sreekumar, saying that if they were released, it will send a message to wrongdoers that a person can level allegations with impunity and get away with it.
Setalvad and Sreekumar were arrested a day after the Supreme Court on June 24 dismissed a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri was killed during the Gujarat Riots in Ahmedabad, challenging the Special Investigation Team's (SIT) clean chit to 64 people in the riots, including the then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
In the verdict upholding the SIT's clean chit, the apex court had blamed the petitioners in the Zakia Zafri case for "keeping the pot boiling" and showing the "audacity" to question the integrity of the SIT, and observed that "all those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law".
(With PTI inputs)
