NEW DELHI: Activist Teesta Setalvad was granted regular bail by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, in sharp contrast to a Gujarat High Court order earlier this month, which asked her to "surrender immediately" in a case linked to the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Justices BR Gavai, AS Bopanna and Dipankar Datta had set aside the Gujarat HC order rejecting her plea for regular bail, citing an investigation of alleged fabrication of evidence in cases related to the riots.
In its observations, the apex court pointed out that the charge sheet against Ms Setalvad had been filed, thus eliminating the necessity for interrogation in custody.
While granting her bail, the Supreme Court, however, directed Ms Setalvad not to exert influence on witnesses in the ongoing case.
During the course of the hearing, Justice BR Gavai questioned the prosecution on the motives and timing of Ms Setalvad's arrest: "What were you doing till 2022? What investigation have you done from June 24 and June 25 that you decided she has done something so heinous as to warrant her arrest?"
Delivering a few sharp comments, Justice Gavai underlined that accepting the authorities' contentions would mean rendering moot the Definition of Evidence Act.
"Definition of Evidence Act would have to be thrown in the dustbin if your contention has to be accepted. We're only putting you on guard that if you delve more into it, we will have to make observations..." the court told the prosecutor.
Justice Dipankar Datta echoed Justice Gavai’s sentiment when he slammed the notion of holding someone in custody until pronouncement of a verdict.
Initially, we were feeling that there was a case under [Section] 194. Now we think the case under Section 194 is suspect. And you want someone to be undertrial and in custody, till verdict is pronounced," he said.
The real legal battles of Ms Setalvad began last year.
In June 2022, she along with former Gujarat police chief RB Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested for allegedly making her close associates and riot victims 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."
The Supreme Court had earlier extended Ms Setalvad's interim bail on July 5, pending the next hearing which took place on Wednesday. The decision considered Ms Setalvad's petition against the Gujarat High Court order, instructing her to surrender. Earlier, the high court had denied her request for regular bail.
The Supreme Court has been protecting Ms Setalvad from being arrested since July 1, which put the high court order on hold.
The court had granted the stay on the HC order without going into the merits of the case but did not refrain from pointing out that the single judge should not refuse any form of protection for Ms Setalvad.
Ms Setalvad had been arrested just two days after dismissal of a plea in the court by her and Zakia Jafri, the widow of Ehsan Jafri, a former MP who was killed in the riots. The duo had challenged the investigation that gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the Chief Minister of at the time of the Gujarat riots.
A vocal critic of the Gujarat administration of that time, Ms Setalvad was released from jail in September last year after receiving interim bail from the Supreme Court.
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