NEW DELHI: Following Teesta Setalvad's arrest for allegedly falsifying papers to implicate high-ranking officials, including the state's then-chief minister Narendra Modi, in the 2002 riots cases, the Supreme Court on Monday sent the Gujarat government notice over her request for bail.

A court presided over by Justice U.U. Lalit agreed to review Setalvad's request for bail and set a new hearing date for Thursday. In the Supreme Court, Setalvad was defended by prominent attorneys Kapil Sibal and Aparna Bhat. The top court said, "Taking into account the circumstances, let the notice be returnable on Thursday... Liberty to serve standing counsel for the state."

The Gujarat High Court served notice to the SIT earlier this month asking for a response to bail requests submitted by Setalvad and former Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) R.B. Sreekumar. The case will be heard by the supreme court in September. Setalvad objected to a one-and-a-half-month delay in the hearing of her bail plea in her appeal before the Supreme Court, citing the court's decision in Satendar Kumar Antil v. CBI to support her position that bail cases need to be resolved quickly.

A session court in Ahmedabad rejected her and Sreekumar's request for bail in July. The court rejected the bail application, stating that if the applicants (the accused) were granted bail, it would implicitly serve as encouragement to the wrongdoers that the court had granted bail despite the allegations made against the then-Chief Minister and others.

On the basis of claims made by his co-accused Pravin Raut, Raut was detained on suspicion of receiving criminal earnings from the Patra Chawl reconstruction project in Kandivali. The ED originally asserted that Raut's family received Rs 1.06 crore as "direct beneficiaries" and later asserted that a new trail for an additional Rs 2.25 crore had been found. Raut has refuted the charges. Varsha, Raut's wife, was also questioned by the ED in its headquarters.

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