Notice for arrest wasn't given, No explanation for delays in jail: Teesta Setalvad
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Activist Teesta Setalvad who was recently released from jail said that she had no premonition of the arrest. She was arrested in June over an alleged conspiracy to destabilise the Gujarat government after the 2002 riots.
In an interview given to NDTV, she said she expected due process of law to be followed and notice to be served. She added that the kind of crackdown cops carried out was not expected. The activist was granted interim bail from the Supreme Court and released from jail two days ago.
Speaking about the delay in her plea for bail being processed, she said she was only questioned once for three hours in the first week she spent in jail. "The rest of the time, I was just sitting around. No explanation was given for the delay."
Setalvad spent 63 days in jail and seven days in police custody. "Sabarmati Central Jail is also where Kasturba Gandhi was once imprisoned." She added that inmates are not given a copy of the jail manual so she did not know what her rights were.
She stated that the issue of police not becoming an arm of the executive of law is worrying. "I want to say we have a set of laws in this country, those laws apply with some degree of honesty and autonomy by the police. "There's a situation where the police get used to conducting these arrests and raids, which is a threat to anybody," she added.
About the time she spent in jail, She said that we need to understand personal freedom is important. "Incarceration cannot be the norm."
While granting her interim bail, the Supreme Court expressed displeasure over the delay Gujarat High Court imposed in the case. The bench said that the charges on her do not make it a possibility that her bail plea is denied.
