India
A rights activist who was detained after attempting to have Prime Minister Narendra Modi found responsible for fatal sectarian riots 20 years ago was granted bail by India top court on Friday.
When Modi was Gujarat’s governor in 2002, one of the country’s deadliest episodes of religious violence left at least 1,000 people—mostly Muslims—hacked, shot, and burned to death.
Teesta Setalvad was imprisoned in June following the Supreme Court’s denial of her appeal of a decision exonerating the leader of the massacre. The Supreme Court decided on Friday that Setalvad had been detained long enough to be questioned about the allegations leveled against her.
A three-judge bench ruled that “the appellant is entitled to the release on interim bail.”Upon learning that a Gujarat court had postponed its own bail hearing for seven weeks, Setalvad, 60, requested the court’s assistance.
She was accused of forging and submitting fake evidence by the government’s legal team as part of their larger allegation of a plot to topple Prime Minister Modi’s administration.In connection with the same case, two ex-police officers have been taken into custody.
