A sessions court in Ahmedabad on 29 July is most likely to pass its order on the bail applications of activist Teesta Setalvad and former DGP R B Sreekumar arrested for allegedly fabricating documents to frame innocent people in the 2002 riots cases.
As per details, Additional principal judge D D Thakkar is likely to pronounce the order. Earlier on Thursday, the court had deferred its order in the case till Friday, which it did for the second time this week.
Both the accused — Teesta Setalvad and R B Sreekumar — have denied the charges. Apart from Setalvad and Sreekumar, former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt is also an accused in the case and has been arrested.
ALSO READ: Did Ahmed Patel pay Teesta to destabilize Gujarat govt in 2002? Congress refutes SIT charges
The crime branch has arrested the trio and filed an first information report (FIR) against them under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 194 (giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction for capital offence).
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case in its affidavit alleged that the accused were part of a larger conspiracy carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel to destabilise the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Narendra Modi.
Also the SIT had alleged that Setalvad was paid ₹30 lakh at Patel’s behest soon after the Godhra train burning incident of 2002. While, Sreekumar abused the process for damning the elected representatives, bureaucracy and police administration of the whole state of Gujarat for ulterior purposes.
The FIR against Setalvad, Sreekumar and Bhatt was registered after the Supreme Court last month dismissed the plea filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Her plea had alleged a “larger conspiracy” behind the post-Godhra riots.
The SIT filed a closure report on 8 February, 2012, giving a clean chit to Prime Minister Modi and 63 others, including senior government officials, saying there was “no prosecutable evidence” against them. The top court on June 24 this year upheld the SIT’s clean chit to Modi and 63 others.
With PTI inputs.
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