SC seeks Gujarat govt's reply on bail plea submitted by Teesta Setalvad

New Delhi: The Supreme Court, in response to activist Teesta Setalvad's request for bail, has sought a response from the Gujarat state government.

The petition is scheduled for hearing before a bench presided over by Justice U U Lalit on August 25.

The activist from Mumbai was detained in connection with a conspiracy and evidence fabrication case during the violence in Gujarat in 2002. Setalvad stated in her plea that it was being brought against the Gujarat High Court order of August 3 that set "an extremely long date in a matter which is about personal liberty" as well as the final judgement and order dated July 30 by the Additional Principal Sessions Judge, City Civil and Sessions Court, Ahmedabad, "refusing to grant bail to the petitioner."

On July 30, Setalvad's and retired Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar's bail requests were denied by the Ahmedabad Sessions Court, which reasoned that their release on bail would "impliedly encourage to the wrongdoers that in spite of doing such type of accusations against the then CM and others, the court has lightly enlarged the accused on bail."

The activist then filed a petition with the High Court, which set the case for hearing on September 19, by which the state was supposed to respond to the activist's application for bail, according to the Indian Express.

Setalvad and Sreekumar were detained on June 25, a day after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, the widow of murdered Congress MP Ahsan Jafri, and upheld the special investigation team's (SIT) decision to give then-Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi a clean bill of health in the 2002 Gujarat riots. In Jafri's 2006 complaint, Setalvad, Sreekumar, and third co-accused former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt were included as witnesses.