Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court on Wednesday issued notices to the special investigation team (SIT) asking them to respond to bail applications filed by rights activist Teesta Setalvad and former director general of police RB Sreekumar, who were arrested for allegedly fabricating documents to frame innocent people in 2002 Gujarat riots cases.
Setalvad and Sreekumar approached the high court after their bail applications were rejected by the Ahmedabad city sessions court recently. The high court issued notices and posted the hearing on September 19.
On July 30, Ahmedabad sessions court judge DD Thakkar refused to grant bail, noting that the accused appeared to have aimed to “destabilise” the Gujarat government and defame the state for their ulterior motives.
Granting bail to the accused would encourage the wrong-doers that in spite of “making such accusations against the then chief minister and others, the court has lightly enlarged them on bail”, the judge said.
“It appears that the accused aimed to destabilise the government and tarnish the image of Gujarat within the country and abroad by using false documents to accuse the then government of having sponsored post-Godhra riots,” the court said in the 24-page order on July 30. “It appears…they did so for their ulterior motives as well as political aspirations and for obtaining a personal goal and monetary benefit from one political faction as well as other countries.”
Former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who is also an accused in the case, hasn’t sought bail in this case.
On June 25, the Gujarat Police arrested Setalvad and Sreekumar after a first information report (FIR) was registered against them under sections 468 (forgery for cheating) and 194 (fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction for capital offences) of the Indian Penal Code.
The arrests came a day after the Supreme Court ruled out a larger conspiracy behind the 2002 Gujarat riots and expressed the need to proceed against those “disgruntled officers” and others whose “coalesced effort was to create a sensation by making false revelations”.
Last month, an Ahmedabad court remanded Sanjiv Bhatt in judicial custody after his seven-day remand ended on July 20. Bhatt was lodged at Palanpur jail in Banaskantha district in connection with a different case when he was arrested in this case.
The Gujarat government formed a SIT to probe the role of Setalvad, Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt after registering an FIR for false testimonies in connection to the 2002 Gujarat riots case.
The SIT told the sessions court that Setalvad carried out a larger conspiracy after the 2002 Gujarat riots at the behest of veteran Congress leader late Ahmed Patel, the political advisor to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, to destabilize the elected state government that was under the leadership of chief minister Narendra Modi at that time.
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