Gujarat Riots Case: SC extends interim protection to Teesta Setalvad

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Supreme Court on Wednesday extended interim protection to activist Teesta Setalvad in case linked to post-Godhra riots. A bench of Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna and Dipankar Datta issued a notice to Gujarat government on the activist's plea against Gujarat High Court denying regular bail.

Further, the apex court has listed the matter for hearing on July 19 on the request of Additional Solicitor General SV Raju who sought time to translate documents. Teesta Setalvad, who was denied regular bail by the Gujarat High Court on July 1, in a case involving the alleged creation of false evidence during the 2002 Gujarat riots, was granted interim protection by the Supreme Court.

The High Court had ordered her to surrender without delay. The Ahmedabad crime branch registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Setalvad, Sreekumar and jailed former IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt a day after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the clean chit given by a special investigation team to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.

Setalvad, Sreekumar and Bhatt were accused of abusing the process of law by conspiring to fabricate evidence and frame innocent people for an offence punishable with capital punishment. While dismissing the petition filed by Zakia Jafri whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the riots, the SC had observed that «it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge.» All those involved in such abuse of process «need to be in the dock and proceed in accordance with law,» the supreme