Supreme Court notice to Gujarat government on Teesta Setalvad's bail plea

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Gujarat government on a bail plea by activist Teesta Setalvad, arrested for forgery and criminal conspiracy, following the apex court's judgement approving clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2002 riots.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia sought a response from the state government and fixed the matter for hearing on Thursday (August 25).

Setalvad questioned the High Court's order which fixed her plea for release for consideration to September 19.

Setalvad, along with former senior police officers R B Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhat, were arrested on June 25 after lodging of the criminal case by the Gujarat ATS at Ahmedabad.

At the outset, Justice Lalit offered to recuse in the case citing that he had represented some of the accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

Senior advocate, Kapil Sibal appearing for Setalvad, however, said that his client has no objection to the Justice Lalit-led bench hearing the matter.

In her plea, Setalvad contended that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) report has not termed her as an accused in the case, neither any evidence of tampering with the statements of witnesses against her was found. She also alleged that she was being targeted by the state government for supporting riot victims.

On June 24, the Supreme Court had upheld the clean chit given to Modi and others in the 2002 Gujarat riots, terming plea filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband Congress MP Ahsan Jafri was killed in the violence, as abuse of the process.

In a strongly worded order, the court had said there is a need to put those looking "to keep the pot boiling" with an "ulterior motive" in the dock.