New Delhi, Aug 16 : Actor Teesta Setalvad has approached the Supreme Court seeking bail after she was detained for allegedly fabricating documents to implicate high-ranking officials, including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots trial.A bench composed of Chief Justice N.V.Ramana and comprised of justices J.K.Maheshwari and Hima Kohli, said: “Upon being mentioned by Aparna Bhat Advocate on the Record of the petitioner requesting the urgent list of the matter The registry is instructed to bring the matter up for discussion on the 22nd of August before a bench headed by Justice Uday Umesh Lalit.”
In the last month in the month of April, earlier this month, the Gujarat High Court was able to issue an order to the SIT asking for a response to the bail application filed by Setalvad and the former Gujarat DGP R.B.Sreekumar.The High Court will hear the case in September.
In her appeal to the apex court Setalvad has raised an objection to an extended gap of one-and-a-half years in the process of hearing of her bail request and cited the decision of the highest court in the Satendar Kumar Antil vs CBI case, which argued that bail cases should be dealt with swiftly.
In July, a session judge in Ahmedabad had refused to approve bail for Sreekumar and Sreekumar.In rejecting the bail request, the court noted: “If the applicants are granted bail enlargement this would suggest those who are doing wrong to do the same.in spite of the nature of allegations against the then Chief Minister, and other officials the court has expanded the suspects on bail.So, if we look at the facts above and conditions even though the applicant is a woman and the other is retired IPS officer or an older person, they aren’t required to be expanded on bail.”
On June 24 on June 24, the Supreme Court had dismissed the appeal of Zakia Jafri, spouse of Congress chief Ehsan Jafri, who was killed during the violence at Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society in 2002 contesting the SIT’s clean chit issued to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and others in the protests in Gujarat.
A bench comprised of Justice A.M.Khanwilkar said that the current proceedings have been ongoing for more than 16 years (from the filing of complaint on June 8th, 2006, which grew into 67 pages and ending by filing a 514-page protest petition which was filed on April 15 2013, 2013) as well as with the courage to question the credibility of every person that was involved in the act of uncovering the devious strategy used.
“To maintain the boiling pot in order to create a new purpose.As an issue of fact, all involved in the overuse of procedure, must be in the dock and dealt with in conformity with the law,” the top court had stated.
ss/arm
