New Delhi:
Activist Teesta Setalvad was released from jail two days ago after she got interim bail from the Supreme Court in a case over an alleged "conspiracy to destabilise the Gujarat government after the 2002 riots". She had been in jail since June.
Here are 5 top quotes from her interview to NDTV:
I had no premonition of the arrest. On the reading of the Supreme Court order, one expects due process of law. Frankly speaking, I expected to a due process of law to be followed, a notice was necessary, not the kind of crackdown that happened.
I spent 63 days in jail, and seven in police custody. Sabarmati Central Jail is also where Kasturba Gandhi was once imprisoned. Jails are run by a jail manual. But when you are inside them, you are not given a copy of that, so, you don't really know what the rights are.
I want to say we have a set of laws in this country, those laws apply with some degree of honesty and autonomy by the police. The whole issue of the police not becoming an arm of the executive is a question. It's worrying. There's a situation where the police gets used to conducting these arrests and raids, which is a threat to anybody.
I landed there on the 26th, a Sunday. Right from the Sunday to the next Saturday, I wasn't called for questioning except once for 3 hours. The rest of the time, I was just sitting around. No explanation was given for the delay.
The SC judgment came out while I was in the jail. That 2-judge bench passed a very strong judgment. I was also in jail during the post-covid period. The covid period had just made it worse for the under trials. We need to understand personal freedom is important, incarceration can't be the norm.
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