The Supreme Court has referred activist Teesta Setalvad's application for the release of her passport to a three-judge bench, in a case related to alleged fabrication of documents in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar, who has been long waging a legal battle for the 2002 communal riots victims and has taken on Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the process, joined Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday.
The Supreme Court of India has dismissed the bail plea of former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case. The court ruled that there was no merit in his plea for bail or suspension of sentence. Bhatt, along with co-accused Pravinsinh Zala, was found guilty of murder, voluntarily causing hurt, and criminal intimidation by the Gujarat High Court in 2024. The case stems from the death of Prabhudas Vaishnani, who was detained by Bhatt following a communal riot in Jamjodhpur in 1990. Vaishnani's brother alleged that Bhatt and other police officers tortured him in custody, leading to his death.
Bhatt was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1990 custodial death case in Jamnagar and 20 years in jail in a 1996 case relating to planting drugs to frame a Rajasthan-based lawyer in Palanpur. He is currently lodged in the Rajkot Central Jail.
The 1994 Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) espionage case, in which former space scientist Nambi Narayanan was falsely implicated, was allegedly created by a then special branch officer of Kerala police to justify his illegal detention of a Maldivian woman in India after she spurned his advances, the Central Bureau of Investigation has told a court in Thiruvananthapuram.
A sessions court in Ahmedabad on Thursday rejected activist Teesta Setalvad's application seeking discharge in a case related to alleged fabrication of evidence related to the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The counsel of social activist Teesta Setalvad on Thursday told a sessions court in Ahmedabad that affidavits which the prosecution claims are false were signed by witnesses and submitted in different courts in the past.
Setalvad was taken into custody on June 25 last year along with former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar and ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in an offence registered by Ahmedabad crime branch police for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame "innocent people" in the post-Godhra riots cases.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended interim protection from arrest till July 19 to activist Teesta Setalvad in a case linked to the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Wednesday a plea by social activist Teesta Setalvad challenging the Gujarat high court order which had rejected her plea for regular bail and directed her to surrender immediately in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence to frame innocent people in 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.
The UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has voiced concern over the arrest and detention of social activist Setalvad and called for her immediate release.
Bhatt is the third accused arrested in the case after social activist Teesta Setalvad and former Director General of Police of Gujarat R B Sreekumar.
Dr S Nambi Narayanan, the retired Indian Space Research Organisation scientist whose bio-pic the film is, has tested positive for COVID-19.
She had been lodged in the Sabarmati Central jail in Ahmedabad since her arrest on June 26.
A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Prashant Kumar Mishra, which heard the matter in a special hearing, urged the Chief Justice of India to assign the matter to a larger bench.
A special investigation team (SIT) on Wednesday submitted a charge sheet against activist Teesta Setalvad, retired director general of police R B Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots cases.
A court in Ahmedabad on Sunday remanded social activist Teesta Setalvad and former state director general of police R B Sreekumar in police custody till July 2 in a case of fabricating evidence to frame innocent persons in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT), to be headed by a deputy inspector general (DIG) of Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), will probe the case against activist Teesta Setalvad and former Indian Police Service officers R B Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt who have been accused of abusing the process of law by fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in connection with the 2002 Gujarat communal riots, a senior official said on Sunday.
The Supreme Court on Friday quashed the Kerala high court order granting anticipatory bail to four people, including a former director general of police (DGP), in a case of alleged frame-up of scientist Nambi Narayanan in the 1994 ISRO espionage matter.
The Supreme Court said on Monday it will ask the Kerala high court to consider afresh the anticipatory bail pleas of four people, including a former director general of police (DGP), in a case of alleged frame-up of scientist Nambi Narayanan in the 1994 ISRO espionage matter.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for Gujarat, told a bench headed by Justice UU Lalit that a response to Setalvad's petition is ready but it requires some corrections.
After her detention on Saturday, she had been taken to the Santacruz police station in Mumbai for informing the local police about her detention.
A sessions court in Ahmedabad on Saturday rejected the bail applications of activist Teesta Setalvad and former director general of police R B Sreekumar, arrested for allegedly fabricating documents to 'frame innocent people' in 2002 riots cases.
Excerpts of a book written by a former Indian Administrative Service officer have been submitted to the Nanavati-Mehta Commission, probing the post-Godhra riots, by a former Gujarat director general of police saying they contain 'relevant material' for the panel.
The lawyer defending the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team, which gave a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 post-Godhra riots case on the complaint by Zakia Jafri, Friday said that "her complaint contains nothing but all irrelevant things".
The action came after Amit Shah accused Teesta of giving baseless information to the police about the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Suspended Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt on Thursday sought his joint examination with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and ex-Director General of Police R B Sreekumar before the Nanavati Commission in connection with the alleged undermining of judicial proceedings related to 2002 riots.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim bail to social activist Teesta Setalvad, arrested on June 25 for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame 'innocent people' in the 2002 Gujarat riots cases.
Former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar alleged the Special Investigation Team, which reportedly gave a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi in post-Godhra riot cases, of not considering "evidences" provided by him and indicated he might approach the Supreme Court on the matter.
The Nanavati Commission, which was appointed in 2002, after five years observed that police at some places were ineffective in controlling the mob and said the post-Godhra riots that spread out in the state were "not a pre-planned conspiracy or orchestrated violence.
The Supreme Court on Thursday wondered why the Gujarat high court has listed the bail plea of activist Teesta Setalvad for hearing on September 19, six weeks after it sent a notice to the state government seeking a response to her application, and asked the state to inform it by 2 pm on Friday about whether such a precedent existed there.
State DGP A K Bhargav said it was against the police manual for an official of Sreekumar's rank to maintain such a diary.
Sreekumar's counsel claimed that each page of the 207-page diary had the signature and official seal of the then Inspector General of Police (Administration), O P Mathur.
'They don't want anybody to stand up and support the vulnerable sections of society who may be targeted.'
The ISRO spy case is dead. And yet, not dead.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday alleged that former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar levelled charges of fake encounters against the Narendra Modi's government as a quid pro quo for the UPA dispensation giving him a clean chit in ISRO spy case "fabricated" by him.
Former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar, who had taken on Narendra Modi on fake encounter issue, on Tuesday filed a defamation and conspiracy case against the Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate and other party leaders, accusing them of launching a malicious campaign against him by raking up the two-decade-old Indian Space Research Organisation spy case.
There is a great need to introduce a transparent process to select information commissioners, who are expected to oversee transparency, says former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.
The lawyer of Zakia Jafri on Thursday alleged before the magistrate's court here that Special Investigation Team probing the 2002 Gujarat riots cases "ignored and manipulated" conclusions of National Human Rights Commission and Chief Election Commissioner.
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