SC issues notice to Gujarat govt on social activist Teesta Setalvad's bail plea

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Teesta Setalvad case: The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Gujarat state government over the interim bail plea filed by Teesta Setalvad. The social activist was arrested for allegedly fabricating documents to frame innocent people in the 2002 Gujarat riots. The next hearing in the matter will take place on August 25.

This isn't the first notice issued to the Gujarat government. On August 3, the Gujarat High Court issued notice to the state government on the plea and had fixed the matter for hearing on September 19.

Before this, on July 30, a sessions court in Ahmedabad rejected the bail applications of Setalvad and former director general of police R B Sreekumar in the case, saying their release will send a message to wrongdoers that a person can level allegations with impunity and get away with it.

Setalvad and Sreekumar, who was also arrested in June, are accused of fabricating evidence to frame "innocent people" in the post-Godhra riot cases. They are lodged in the Sabarmati central jail.

They were arrested by the Ahmedabad city crime branch in June after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against them under Indian Penal Code sections 468 (forgery for cheating) and 194 (fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction for capital offences).

Mumbai-based Setalvad and Sreekumar were arrested within a couple of days after the Supreme Court on June 24 dismissed a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, the wife of former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri who was killed in Ahmedabad during the riots, triggered by the torching of a coach of Sabarmati Express by a mob near Godhra station on February 27, 2002.

Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, the third accused in the case, has not applied for bail. Bhatt was already in jail for another criminal matter when he was arrested in this case.

(With PTI Inputs)