Social activist Teesta Setalvad’s regular bail plea was rejected by the Gujarat High Court on Saturday. The court directed her to surrender immediately in a case related to the alleged fabrication of evidence to implicate innocent individuals in the post-Godhra riots cases of 2002. Justice Nirzar Desai of the Gujarat High Court denied Setalvad’s bail request and ordered her to surrender immediately, reported news agency PTI. This decision was made because she was already out on interim bail.

The court stated in its order that since Setalvad was currently on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court, she must surrender immediately.

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On June 25 of last year, Setalvad and former Director General of Police RB Sreekumar were taken into custody by the Gujarat Police. They were later sent to judicial custody on July 2 after their police remand concluded. However, Setalvad was released from jail in September 2022 after obtaining relief from the Supreme Court.

Following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of a petition, challenging the clean chit given to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in the post-Godhra riots cases, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Setalvad, and former IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt (who was in prison), and Sreekumar. The trio was accused of abusing the legal process by conspiring to fabricate evidence and falsely implicate innocent individuals in a crime punishable by capital punishment.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court noted, while dismissing a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the riots, that it seemed to them that disgruntled Gujarat government officials and a few others had colluded to create a sensation. They made fake revelations, which they knew to be false, the Supreme Court observed. The Supreme Court emphasized that all those involved in such misuse of the legal process should face legal action.

Consequently, Setalvad, Bhatt, and Sreekumar were charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including forgery, fabricating false evidence with the intention of securing a conviction for a capital offence, instituting criminal proceedings to cause harm, framing incorrect records or writing with the intent of saving a person from punishment or property from forfeiture, and criminal conspiracy.

(With PTI inputs.)