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’s 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.
According to critics, Modi’s administration has tried to exert pressure on activists and rights organizations by closely examining their financial records and taking legal action against opposing viewpoints.
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.
Setalvad had brought multiple legal actions against Modi’s government for allegedly neglecting to put an end to the bloodshed during the Gujarat riots.
She had backed a plea made by the widow of a former lawmaker who had been slain by a Hindu mob during the turmoil, Zakia Jafri.
A day after the Supreme Court denied the appeal, she was detained by Gujarat’s anti-terror police, which alarmed the UN Human Rights Council and led to demonstrations in various Indian cities.
When a fire broke out on a train returning to one of Hinduism’s holiest locations, 59 Hindus perished, sparking the turmoil that started in 2002.
