Supreme Court grants interim bail to activist Teesta Setalvad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 2

The Supreme Court today granted interim bail to activist Teesta Setalvad, who has been in jail for over two months for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame “innocent people” in the 2002 riots cases.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, however, said her regular bail plea pending before the Gujarat High Court shall be considered on merit independently and uninfluenced by the observations made by it.

The top court asked her to surrender her passport to the trial court until her regular bail plea was decided by the High Court and cooperate with the investigation.

The Bench, which had yesterday wondered why the Gujarat High Court listed her bail plea for hearing on September 19, six weeks after issuance of a notice to the state government, granted her interim bail after hearing senior counsel Kapil Sibal, representing Setalvad, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the state of Gujarat.

The top court clarified that the order had been passed considering the fact that she was a woman and it could not be used by other co-accused in the case. As Sibal said it would be difficult for Setalvad to get a local surety, the Bench said, “It shall be open to the court concerned to consider releasing her on interim bail accepting cash surety.”

The top court said, “Having considered the circumstances on record, in our view, the High Court ought to have considered the application for interim bail during the pendency (of her regular bail plea).”

Yesterday, the top court had asked Gujarat Government to inform it if there were similar precedents of delayed listing of bail pleas of women accused by 2 pm today. The FIR was lodged against Setalvad, former Director General of Police RB Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt a day after the SC dismissed a petition challenging the SIT clean chit to then CM Modi and others in the 2002 riots cases.

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