A day after the Supreme Court granted interim bail to activist Teesta Setalvad, in the case where she is accused of fabricating evidence relating to a purported conspiracy behind the 2002 post-Godhra riots, she walked out of Sabarmati Central Jail.
She was arrested by a Gujarat ATS (anti-terrorist squad) team from her house in Mumbai on June 25 after the apex court upheld the clean chit given by an SIT (special investigation team) to PM Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 Gujarat riots. She was booked by crime branch on June 25 along with former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who has been jailed in an NDPS (Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance) Act case.
The case was later given to an SIT headed by Gujarat ATS DIG Deepan Bhadran. The trio was accused of abusing the process of law by conspiring to fabricate evidence in an attempt to frame innocent people for an offence punishable with capital punishment in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots, states the crime branch FIR citing the apex court order upholding the clean chit.
The Supreme Court acted on a plea filed by Zakia Jafri, wife of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed during the riots in 2002. The court had said Setalvad and Sreekumar were ‘disgruntled’. In accordance with the SC order, she was produced before sessions judge V A Rana for the bail formalities.
Amit Patel, special public prosecutor said that “The sessions court imposed two conditions over and above the conditions imposed by the apex court. The sessions court asked the accused to furnish a personal bond of Rs 25,000 and not to leave India without its prior permission.”
