SC differs on interim bail to Teesta, requests CJI to post matter before larger bench

A Supreme Court vacation bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Prashant Kumar Mishra could not agree on granting interim bail to Teesta Setalvad in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots case and requested Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud to constitute a larger bench to hear the matter.

Teesta Setalvad had approached the Supreme Court after the Gujarat High Court had ordered her to surrender immediately. In September 2022, the Supreme Court had her granted interim bail and she had approached the Gujarat High Court for the regular bail. Her request was denied on Saturday.

Appearing for Setalvad in the High Court, senior advocate Mihir Thakore, requested Justice Nirzar Desai to stay the operation of the verdict for a period of 30 days but Desai rejected the request.

Teesta Setalvad has been accused of allegedly fabricating evidence and statements of witnesses in the 2002 Godhra riots and had allegedly submitted them to the Nanavati commission set up to investigate the riots.

She was arrested by the Gujarat Police on 25 June 2022 based on an FIR by the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Brach for falsely implicating people in the 2002 Gujarat riots. Teesta was kept in police remand for seven days and then sent to judicial custody on July 2. The chargesheet claimed that she had hatched a conspiracy to implicate then Gujarat CM and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the deaths in the aftermath of the Godhra riots in Gujarat.