HC grants bail to former top cop Sreekumar in false evidence case

The bench of Justice Ilesh Vora while granting bail to Sreekumar took into account that “the entire case is based on documentary evidence”. The said evidence, the court observed, is now in the custody of the investigating agency.

“The applicant aged about 75 years, is suffering from age-related ailments and nothing reported against him that he has misused his liberty during the interim bail,” the court further observed.

Justice Vora also took into account that the Supreme Court has already granted bail to Mumbai-based activist Teesta Setalvad, the key accused in the case.

Setalvad, Sreekumar, and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt are facing charges of forgery and criminal conspiracy, among others.

The FIR was lodged by the Detection of Crime Branch police station in Ahmedabad in June last year and as per the chargesheet in the case, the three accused allegedly tried to implicate Narendra Modi, who higher officials of the state government, and top leaders of the BJP for the large-scale deaths in the 2002 communal riots by instituting a false case with false evidence.