It is this long gap for the next hearing date that Setalvad took objection to, in her appeal before the top court.
She submitted that as per the judgment of the Supreme Court in Satendar Kumar Antil v. CBI, bail matters must be heard expeditiously.
“Despite the same, the first date fixed by Hon’ble High Court in the present case is after one and a half months,” her plea said.
Setalvad’s arrest came after a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had made adverse remarks against her on June 24 while dismissing the plea by Zakia Jafri, wife of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed during the 2002 Gujarat Riots. Zakia Jafri had challenged the Gujarat High Court’s decision of 2017 upholding the magistrate’s decision to accept the closure report filed by the SIT in the case.
While dismissing the plea, the top court had made observations against Setalvad and former DGP Sreekumar, terming them “disgruntled”.
The Court said that there was a coalesced effort by them to create a sensation by making revelations that were false to their own knowledge.
“At the end of the day, it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge. The falsity of their claims had been fully exposed by the SIT after a thorough investigation,” the judgment had said.
Such officials need to be in the dock for “keeping the pot boiling” with ulterior motives, the Court had said.
Source: Barandbench
