The Supreme Court on July 19 granted bail to activist Teesta Setalvad. The activist has been accused of fabricating evidence linked to the 2002 Gujarat riots to implicate senior government functionaries.
2002 Gujarat Riots
The decision came after a three-judge bench comprising of Justices BR Gavai, AS Bopanna and Dipankar Datta set aside the Gujarat High Court’s order, which had previously denied Setalvad’s regular bail.
The apex court criticized the High Court’s observations as “perverse”, stating that they cannot be accepted. The Supreme Court quashed the Gujarat High Court’s order that had denied bail to Setalvad.
The activist’s passport will remain in custody, and she has been barred from attempting to influence the witnesses. Based on an FIR registered by the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), Setalvad, along with former Gujarat Director General of Police RB Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, was taken into custody on June 25, 2022.