SC allows Teesta Setalvad to travel to Malaysia for attending conference

New Delhi [India], August 20 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted permission to human rights activist Teesta Setalvad to travel abroad to attend a conference.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan allowed Setalvad to travel to Malaysia from August 31 to September 10, subject to furnishing solvent surety of Rs 10 lakh.

The bench also directed her to give an undertaking with details of her travel and also ordered that she should return her passport after the conference ends.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Setalvad, told the apex court that Setalvad was seeking a relaxation of her bail condition to travel to Malaysia from August 31 to September 10 to attend an anti-racism conference.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that if Setalvad is being allowed to travel abroad, conditions should be imposed so that she return to India is also assured.

She is currently on bail in connection with a criminal case involving allegations of a conspiracy to malign the State of Gujarat and then Chief Minister Narendra Modi for their handling of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Last year, Supreme Court had granted regular bail to the activist after she approached the apex court against Gujarat High Court order rejecting her regular bail and asking her to surrender.

Setalvad was arrested by the Gujarat Police on June 25, 2022, on an FIR by the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) on alleged charges of conspiring to falsely implicate innocent people in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.