Indus Valley Times

Gujarat,July 19: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted regular bail to acitivist Teesta Setalvad in connection with her alleged role in fabricating evidences in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

With this, the Supreme Court quashed the Gujarat High Court’s order that had denied bail to the activist. The court said the findings made in the order were “perverse”.

However, the apex court also said that Teesta, the petitioner, would not make an attempt to influence witnesses and be away from them. The bench said that if Teesta makes any attempt to influence the witnesses, the Gujarat Police is at liberty to directly move to the Supreme Court.

A three-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna and Dipankar Datta noted that Teesta Setalvad’s custodial interrogation is not necessary. The top court said a charge sheet has been filed in the case against her.

“The passport of the appellant already surrendered will be in custody of session court. The appellant shall not make any attempt to influence witnesses and shall stay away from them,” news agency PTI quoted the bench as saying.

Setalvad was taken into custody on June 25 last year along with former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar and ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a case registered by the Ahmedabad crime branch police for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in the post-Godhra riots cases.

-PTI