Activist Teesta Setalvad released from jail
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New Delhi: Activist Teesta Setalvad was released from jail on Saturday evening after the Supreme Court granted her interim bail yesterday. She was in jail since June over an alleged "conspiracy to destabilise the Gujarat government after the 2002 riots".
About her two-month stay in jail, the top court said the police have had enough time to interrogate her. The bench did not appreciate the delay in her bail hearings. It said no offence, in this case, indicates that bail cannot be granted, especially because she is a lady.
A local court in Ahmedabad had denied her bail. When she approached the Gujarat High Court on August 3, the court posted her plea six weeks later. The Supreme Court was not happy with the timeline and asked if such a delay is common practice in the state.
Even though the top court granted her bail and she is released from jail, the plea for regular bail and quashing of the first information report will continue in the high court. The SC bench led by CJI UU Lalit yesterday observed that the high court ought to have considered the plea for interim bail during the pendency of the matter.
The FIR against Setalvad quoted heavily from the Supreme Court observations on a plea by her and Zakia Jafri, whose husband was killed in the Gujarat riots. Then Chief Minister Narendra Modi was accused to have involvement in the former MP's death. Their petition challenged a probe that cleared Modi in the case. The Supreme Court on June 24 dismissed the plea saying it was "to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design."