SC permits Teesta Setalvad to attend documentary fest at Amsterdam

The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted social activist Teesta Setalvad, accused of fabricating evidence in the 2002 Gujarat riots cases, to travel abroad for 10 days for attending a documentary film festival at Amsterdam, Netherlands, with a set of conditions imposed on her.

Setalvad, who was granted bail by the top court in September 2022, moved an application for attending the documentary film festival at Amsterdam, from November 14 to 24. As her passport is lying with the trial court, she requested release of the same for processing Schengen visa which could be protracted, even requiring a month’s time.

Her lawyers – senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Aparna Bhat – informed the court that on August 20, the petitioner was permitted to visit Selangor, Malaysia for a period of 11 days from August 31 to September 10, 2024 to participate as a panelist in an anti-racism conference on non-discrimination’ organised by Pusat KOMAS.

She was supposed to deposit her passport with the trial court on return and was allowed to leave the country after furnishing an undertaking to return and face the trial. Besides, she was directed to furnish a solvent surety of ₹10 lakh.

A bench of justices Bhushan R Gavai and KV Viswanathan imposed the same conditions and allowed her present application. The State, represented by solicitor general Tushar Mehta, raised no objection.

In her application, Setalvad stated that she received an invitation for the Amsterdam event from the organisers of the International Documentary Film Festival in her capacity as producer of a documentary film ‘CycleMahesh’. This film has been nominated for the award under the category of “Best First Feature” and Setalvad was invited to attend the event along with the film director.

The top court had granted bail to Setalvad on September 2, 2022, after she approached the court following registration of criminal cases against her in June 2022. The case against her came pursuant to a Supreme Court judgment of June 24, 2022, which gave a clean chit to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and several others on a petition filed by riots victim Zakia Jaffri, accusing them to be part of a larger conspiracy behind the 2002 riots.

Jafri, the widow of former Congress member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the riots, was supported by Teesta Setalvad before the Gujarat high court and also in the top court. In its order of June 2022, the top court questioned Jafri for the “audacity” to question the integrity of the special investigation team (SIT) which probed the riots cases under the monitoring of the Supreme Court and every functionary involved in the process with an intention to “keep the pot boiling” for an obvious ulterior design.

It even suggested, “All those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law.” Following this judgment, the state government filed a case against Setalvad and others.

Setalvad approached the Gujarat high court for regular bail that was rejected on July 1, 2023. This order was set aside by the top court on July 19 last year as it allowed Setalvad to continue on bail.