Today, Gujarat High Court rejected the bail plea of social activist Teesta Setalvad in the fabrication of documents case. She then approached the Supreme Court where the case is under hearing currently and her plea is to be heard before Chief Justice DY Chandrachud after two Supreme Court benches differed over the matter.
The case against Teesta Setalvad goes back in the year 2002 when Gujarat suffered from the worst communal riots the country has ever witnessed claiming lives of disputed numbers. The riots sent shockwaves across the country and the former chief minister of the state, Narendra Modi was blamed without evidentiary proof by various national and international media and human rights outlets for not taking adequate measures to curb the spread of violence. Among those organizations was Citizens for Justice and Peace which was formed by Teesta Setalvad to advocate the victims of 2002 Gujarat Riots. The organization shortly after the riots begin to litigate in various courts alleging incompetency of the chief minister and his government. Teesta and her organization found initial success when in 2004, Supreme Court transferred the “Best Bakery case” to Maharashtra High Court and also overturned the decision to acquittal of 21 people and start the investigation afresh.
Teesta also testified in the United States Commission of International Religious Freedom on 10 June 2002 against the Gujarat government alleging that then Chief Minister Modi and his government did not take adequate measures in curbing the communal violence that gripped the state post Godhra burning.
She was a key member in Zakia Jafri-CJP petition which demanded criminal trial against Narendra Modi and 62 other politicians and bureaucrats for their alleged role in the riots. The petition highlighted on a criminal conspiracy of a meeting with high ranking police officials on 27 February 2002.
Based upon the petition, Supreme Court in 2009 ordered a special investigation team which submitted its primary report in 2010. Over the years there since there was discrepancy seen in the case but the final report of SIT did not find any conclusive evidence against Honorable Minister Narendra Modi or other government officials in their alleged role to instigate the violence. SIT lawyers while submitting closure reports accused Setalvad of falsely creating a scenario of Chief minister giving people orders to instigate violence.
In June 2022, Supreme court rejected the petition and accused Setalvad of exploiting the emotions of Jafri and other riot victims. In the same month she was arrested by he Anti Terrorism Squad of Gujarat Police and remanded to police custody until July 1. On September 1 2022, Supreme Court said that some details in her case were ‘sketchy’ and granted her interim bail on the grounds that she was a women and left the decision of regular bail to Gujarat High Court.
The case against Padma Shri Awardee is ongoing and it is expected to go before the bench of Chief Justice soon.
