The Supreme Court today referred to a larger bench the petition filed by Teesta Setalvad and her husband seeking anticipatory bail in the case of alleged embezzlement of funds for a museum at Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Society that was devastated in the 2002 riots.
The apex court, however, said that the interim order providing protection from arrest to Ms Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand shall be extended till the larger bench takes up the matter.
While referring the matter to a larger bench, a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Adarsh Kumar Goel said the matter in hand raises several issues pertaining to concept of liberty in view of the offences enumerated in the case.
The two-judge bench had on February 19 reserved its order in the anticipatory bail plea of Ms Setalvad and her husband who had challenged the Gujarat High Court order denying them the relief.
Hours after the High Court had denied them the bail, they had moved the apex court and the bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu had granted stay of the order and posted the matter for next day.
It had extended the protection from arrest till February 19 when a new bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Adarsh Kumar Goel further extended the stay and reserved the judgement.
The bench headed by Justice Misra had clarified that non-cooperation by Ms Teesta Setalvad, a social activist, and her husband into the investigation would give liberty to Gujarat police to move application for cancellation of bail.
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.
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 crore.
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 Ms Setalvad, funds were collected by her despite the idea being dropped.
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