Supreme Court to hear bail plea in Teesta Setalvad fund embezzlement case in July

The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to hear in July the anticipatory bail plea of Teesta Setalvad and her husband in the case of alleged embezzlement of funds for a museum at Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Society that was devastated in the 2002 riots.

The matter, which was listed for fresh hearing today, did not reach the board, but when the bench was about to rise for the day, Gujarat government said it wanted to file an affidavit indicating the progress made into the investigation.

Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani made the mention saying there was a need to file affidavit as certain material during the course of investigation allegedly revealed gross misuse of funds by Setalvad.

He asked a new bench comprising Justices A R Dave, V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan to hear it after a week but senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Dushyant Dave, appearing for Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand, sought time to file reply.

Senior advocate Dave expressed his inability to argue the matter in May as he would be out of the country. The bench then said the matter will be heard in the second week of July.

The apex court had on April 16 constituted a three-judge bench to hear afresh the anticipatory bail plea of Setalvad and her husband as a two-judge bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Adarsh Kumar Goel on March 19 had referred it to the larger bench and had extended its interim order protecting them against arrest till the larger bench takes up the matter.