The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted regular bail to activist Teesta Setalvad in a case related to the alleged fabrication of evidence in the 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.
The apex court deemed the findings of the Gujarat High Court “perverse to say the least” and set aside its order rejecting her plea for regular bail. The three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna, and Dipankar Datta made this decision.
The top court clarified that Setalvad has already faced a chargesheet in the case, and her custodial interrogation is unnecessary.
“The appellant has already surrendered her passport, which will remain in the custody of the sessions court. The appellant shall not make any attempt to influence witnesses and shall maintain a distance from them,” the bench said.
The SC allowed the Gujarat Police to approach the apex court directly if any attempt is made to influence witnesses in the case.
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SC grants bail to Teesta in roits evidence framing cases
During the hearing, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal argued that the Gujarat High Court had denied bail to Setalvad on the ground that she did not file a plea under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for quashing the case. Sibal expressed that rejecting a bail plea on such grounds would be contrary to established jurisprudence.
Sibal highlighted that the Supreme Court’s judgment in June 2022 did not contain any findings on the fabrication of evidence. “Judgment of this court was rendered on June 24, 2022. It has no finding on the fabrication of any evidence. The SIT never argued that. It is the State of Gujarat who made a submission before the court that these are tutored witnesses,” he said.
Sibal questioned the haste with which Setalvad was arrested immediately after the top court’s judgment and claimed that she was not given an opportunity to be heard after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta questioned her locus.
The bench said, “We are at pains to say that the order passed by the learned judge makes an interesting reading. On one hand, the learned judge has spent pages to observe as to how it is not necessary rather nor permissible at the stage of bail to consider whether a prima facie case is made out or not. Learned judge interestingly observed that since the petitioner has neither challenged the FIR or chargesheet in proceedings under Section 482 CrPC or Articles 226 or 32 of the Constitution, it is not permissible for her to say that a prima facie case is not made out. The limited understanding of law we have is that the considerations which are required to be taken into consideration for grant of bail are (1) prima facie case, (2) the possibility of the accused tampering the evidence or influencing the witness, (3) fleeing away from the justice. The other considerations are gravity and seriousness of the offence.If the observation of the learned judge are to be accepted, no application for bail can be accepted unless the accused files an application for quashing the proceedings...To say the least, the findings are totally perverse.”
Setalvad was taken into custody on June 25 last year along with former Gujarat Director General of Police RB Sreekumar and ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a case registered by the Ahmedabad crime branch police for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in the post-Godhra riots cases.
Earlier, on July 30, 2022, an Ahmedabad sessions court had rejected the bail applications of Setalvad and Sreekumar, expressing concerns that their release might send a message that people can level allegations without consequences.
The Gujarat High Court had issued a notice to the State Government on August 3, 2022, regarding Setalvad’s bail plea and scheduled the matter for hearing on September 19. Meanwhile, she moved the Supreme Court (SC) for interim bail after the High Court declined to consider her plea. The apex court granted her interim bail on September 2 last year, with the condition to surrender her passport to the trial court until the Gujarat High Court decided on her regular bail plea.
