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India: Activist Teesta Setalvad Released From Jail
Saturday 3 September 2022, by
Activist Teesta Setalvad Released From Jail
Activist Teesta Setalvad was released from jail this evening a day after she got interim bail from the Supreme Court
Edited by Debanish Achom
Updated: September 03, 2022 9:25 pm IST
Photo: Activist Teesta Setalvad had been in jail since June
Video here
New Delhi:
Activist Teesta Setalvad was released from jail this evening a day after she got interim bail from the Supreme Court in a case over an alleged “conspiracy to destabilise the Gujarat government after the 2002 riots”.
She had been in jail since June. While granting interim bail, the Supreme Court said the police had already got enough time to interrogate her. The court’s tone was consistent with its comments on Thursday, when it said there is “no offence in this case over court which bail cannot be granted”, that too when “she is a lady”.
After bail was denied by a local court in Ahmedabad, she had gone to the Gujarat High Court, which on August 3 posted her plea to six weeks later - a timeline the Supreme Court did not particularly appreciate. Her petition for regular bail and quashing of the first information report, or FIR, will continue to be in the high court though.
“The high court ought to have considered the plea for interim bail during the pendency of the matter,” said the Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice UU Lalit, in its observations yesterday.
The case against her is also connected to some Supreme Court observations, of June 24. She was arrested just two days after the court dismissed a plea by her and Zakia Jafri - whose husband Ehsan Jafri, a former MP, was killed in the riots - in which they had challenged a probe that cleared Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the then Chief Minister, of any wrongdoing.
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Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/teesta-setalvad-jail-gujarat-riots-case-8129164/
Teesta walks out of Sabarmati jail after SC grants bail
While SC order had directed that Setalvad be produced before the appropriate Ahmedabad court for the release order by 3 pm on September 3, Setalvad was produced at around 5 pm, said a lawyer associated with the case.
By: Express News Service
Ahmedabad | Updated: September 3, 2022 10:25:23 pm
Newsguard
Photo: Activist Teesta Setalvad outside Sabarmati Central Jail on Saturday.
Activist Teesta Setalvad was released from Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad on Saturday at around 8 pm following the Supreme Court’s (SC) grant of interim bail on September 2.
While SC order had directed that Setalvad be produced before the appropriate Ahmedabad court for the release order by 3 pm on September 3, Setalvad was produced at around 5 pm, said a lawyer associated with the case.
Explained : Supreme Court grants Teesta Setalvad interim bail; what was the case against her?
Her release comes nearly two months and ten days after her arrest.
Setalvad was arrested by the Gujarat police on June 25 on the basis of an FIR by the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) allegedly on charges of conspiring to falsely implicate innocent persons in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riot.
She was kept in police remand for seven days and was sent to judicial custody on July 2.
Her arrest, along with that of co-accused in the case, former IPS RB Sreekumar had come just a day after the Supreme Court on June 24 had dismissed a plea by Zakia Jafri, wife of slain Congress MP Ahsan Jafri, against the Special Investigation Team clean chit to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others over allegations of conspiracy in the riots.
Editorial : Granting bail to Teesta Setalvad, SC holds out larger promise of a vigilant court that asks questions of the powerful state
The SC in its verdict had observed that proceedings were pursued to “keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design” and said “all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceed in accordance with law.”
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Setalvad along with Sreekumar, had moved the Ahmedabad sessions court on July 5 seeking bail, which was subsequently rejected on July 30. On August 1, Setalvad had moved the Gujarat High Court (HC) seeking bail. Gujarat HC had admitted the bail plea on August 3 while keeping the next date of hearing for September 19, following which Setalvad moved SC seeking bail.
First published on: 03-09-2022 at 07:56:01 pm
