Gujarat High Court on Saturday rejected the regular bail application of Teesta Setalvad and ordered her to surrender immediately. Setalvad, an activist, was arrested in connection with alleged fabrication of evidence and tutoring witnesses in cases related to the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
Setalvad was protected from arrest until now after she secured interim bail from the Supreme Court in September last year following which she was released from judicial custody.
A report in Indian Express stated that following pronouncement of verdict, senior advocate Mihi Thakore had sought stay on implementation of verdict for 30 days but the request was rejected.
Case against Setalvad filed on June 24
The case against Setalvad and two others was registered days after the June 24 verdict of the apex court in the Zakia Jafri case.
While dismissing the petition filed by Zakia Jafri whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the riots, the SC had observed that "it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge."
All those involved in such abuse of process "need to be in the dock and proceed in accordance with law," the supreme court had said.
2002 Gujarat Riots
The 2002 Gujarat riots were triggered by the torching of a coach of Sabarmati Express by a mob near Godhra station on February 27 that year. Fifty-nine passengers, mostly Hindu Karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, were charred to death in the incident.
Charges against Teesta Setalvad
Setalvad and two others have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 468, 471 (forgery), 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence), 211 (institute criminal proceedings to cause injury), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture), and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy).
With PTI Inputs
