Social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband were on Friday granted protection from arrest for another six days by the Supreme Court in a case of alleged embezzlement of funds for a museum at Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Society that was devastated in the 2002 riots.
During a high-voltage hearing, the court first suggested to the couple to "surrender and seek regular bail" but later gave them protection from arrest till Feb 19.
There were a number of occasions during the 30-minute hearing when the bench put a number of questions to senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the couple, and later made clear that the "allegations" against them were "grave" and warned against bringing "politics" in the matter.
The Bench comprising Justices S J Mukhopadhaya and N V Ramana, which observed that it was not a case for "quashing of the FIR,", said it was not going to be moved by the names of persons and the matter would be treated like that of any ordinary citizen or individual.
"We will look into the allegations mainly on the basis of the FIR (against Setalvad and others). Let it be very clear, we will be looking at the case not by names but like the case of any ordinary individual," it said and concluded the hearing on a lighter note remarking that "there will be justice for both and relief for one".
The bench also made it clear that it would independently examine the basis of the FIR whether it is a case for granting anticipatory bail or not which has been denied to Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand.
The apex court was hearing the appeal filed by the Setalvad and her husband against Thursday’s judgement of the High Court by which their plea for anticipatory bail was ejected for not co-operating with the investigation.
After hearing Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Gujarat, who opposed the plea, the bench posted the matter for February 19, asking the parties to place before it the Gujarat High Court judgement and additional documents.
"In the meantime, the order passed on Thursday granting them interim protection, shall continue till then (Feb 19)," the bench said after Sibal sought some time to place relevant documents pertaining to the case in which Setalvad and her husband have been accused of collecting funds in the names of riots victims and religion.
The atmosphere in the courtroom was surcharged with comments by other activist lawyers including former Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising, who said "people wear Rs 10 lakh suit".
The bench stopped her saying "let us maintain the decorum of the court".
Before that also she had made some comments to the dislike of the bench which said, "We will not be swayed by the sentiments."
"This is not the way to address the court. We will consider this case like any other case. Please don't do like this. Allow the counsel concerned to address the bench," it said.
When Sibal assailed the high court judgement and accused the state government of settling personal scores against the social activist, the bench asked, "is it (not) a case where crores of rupees have been used for personal purpose in the name of religion?"
Interrupting Sibal, the bench said "since you are arguing without the judgement in hand, we are independently considering whether it is a case of anticipatory bail or not."
The senior advocate said Setalvad and her husband were left with no option but to approach this court as the state government with its full might was hell-bent on arresting them.
"There are a few people left in this country to have the courage to fight the state," said Sibal.
However, the bench said "we are not going into the politics. We are treating it like a case of an ordinary citizen. We are not going by the name and this petition will also be heard like any other individual."
Sibal agreed with the bench that it is not a case for quashing the FIR and said "we are also only for anticipatory bail".
All documents would be placed to satisfy that "it is not a case of custodial interrogation," he said.
Without naming any individual, he said people charge sheeted in the murder case has been allowed to walk out of the jail on bail and in this case, in which the FIR has been lodged on wrong facts, the petitioners were denied anticipatory bail.
He was arguing that a concocted case of fund embezzlement of crores of rupees has been lodged without proper verification of accounts of the NGOs has been named in the FIR.
However, the bench said "in cases where a sum of crores of rupees is involved will you say it did not fall in the category of murder to deny bail."
The High Court had also observed that Setalvad were not cooperating in the probe and that "they cannot be armoured with full fledged anticipatory bail when applicant did not cooperate with the investigation."
Setalvad and her husband have been booked by the Crime Branch of Gujarat Police on charges of cheating, breach of trust and under the IT Act, in a matter relating to the construction of "Museum of Resistance" in the Gulbarg society in Ahmedabad which was hit by communal riot in 2002.
On February 28, 2002, in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident, armed rioters had swooped on the Gulbarg society and killed 69 people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri.
Sibal said the allegations of collection of crores of rupees in the name of two NGOs are also not correct and they were ready to place all documents for scrutiny and contended that the high court had passed the order without going into those documents running into 1500 pages.
"Even if one entry is found wrong I am ready to go to jail," he said.
However the bench referred to the bank accounts and said "you have done everything to collect the money. You have taken undue advantage of the riot victims and you have shown the photographs of the victims to foreigners and used them to collect money."
Sibal said even if that is the case, there was no complaint from the donors.
The bench shot back saying the allegations were grave and a matter of investigation and victims' FIR cannot be dealt with like that.
Sibal said Setalvad was ready for investigation but court cannot go ahead without providing protection to them as "the might of the state is looming large."
The bench said "FIRs like this can't be ignored. You have taken money in the name of the victims."
At one point during the hearing, the bench asked "why don't the petitioners surrender and go for regular bail."
To this, Sibal said, "We can't do that. ... You don't arrest her, we will give you the documents."
ASG Tushar Mehta said there were "certain shocking facts" against Setalvad which required to be looked into by the apex court as those have been considered by the High Court in its judgement.
When Sibal countered it by saying that every fact is against the judgement, the bench made it clear, "Let us hear it independently on the basis of FIR only."
"We know you are not satisfied with the judgement. You pursue it with FIR," the bench observed.
The bench said, "We still do not want go by the judgement. We don't want to be biased. We want to hear you independently on the basis of the FIR. And we are not reading the High Court judgement."
The bench told Sibal who argued for the anticipatory bail of Setalvad that it does not want to set any precedent which others would cite to claim similar relief in future.
Mehta countered Sibal's claim that the amount involved was only four lakhs and not crores, saying the two NGOs -- Sabrang Trust received Rs 3.66 crore and Citizen for Justice and Peace had Rs 3.25 crore in its account.
"This is what we found during investigation," he said and claimed that credit cards were used for foreign travel and branded cloths and shoes.
One of the riot victims from Gulbarg housing society, which was burnt during the 2002 post Godhra riots, had lodged a complaint with the Ahmedabad Police against Setalvad, Anand and two NGOs run by them - Citizens for Justice and Peace and Sabrang Trust, alleging misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 1.51 crore.
According to the complaint, the accused persons had collected funds in the name of converting part of the Gulbarg society into a museum and had allegedly misappropriated funds worth Rs 1.51 crores.
The accused had contended that they have been implicated in the case and were victims of political vendetta. They claimed that they were being targeted by the perpetrators of the riots.
In 2006, the social activists decided to build the 'Museum of Resistance' at the site of the Gulbarg society. Accordingly in 2009, a part of the plot was sold to Sabrang Trust.
However in 2012, the idea of the museum was dropped as the prices escalated. The same was communicated to the society.
But, according to the complaint filed against Setalvad, funds were collected by her despite the idea being dropped.
