Hours after a special CBI court rejected social activist Teesta Setalvad’s bail plea, the Bombay High Court on Friday extended her interim bail application by two weeks.

Setalvad had moved Bombay HC after her bail plea was turned down by a Central Bureau of Investigation court in connection with a case registered by CBI alleging that her company received Rs. 1.8 crore from abroad without mandatory approval from Centre.

“The anticipatory bail application is rejected,” Special judge Anis Khan had said while rejecting the plea.

Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand had moved the court for bail on July 17.

Immediately after the order, Setalvad told the court that she was shocked.

“I am shocked and aggrieved by the verdict as this is a petty offence. My sympathisers feel that this is an attempt (by the government) to intimidate and possibly eliminate us by the powers (sic).”

The CBI had on July 8 registered a case against Setalvad and Anand alleging that her firm Sabrang Communication and Publishing Pvt Limited (SCPPL) received around 2.9 lakh USD in foreign donations in violation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

According to the agency, SCPPL was not registered under FCRA for collecting money from abroad and the amount of nearly Rs. 1.8 crore (2.9 lakh USD) was, therefore, received in violation of the Act as the organisation needed to seek prior approval from the Union Home Ministry.

Teesta and her husband, through their lawyer, had told the court that they were innocent and were falsely implicated.

Her advocate Mihir Desai told the court that the only reason why the agency wanted to arrest them is to humiliate them for their work in Gujarat.

However, CBI in their reply, last Friday, had said that motive behind the transfer of foreign contribution to SCPPL reflected interference towards the internal security and activities of India.

“Such act of foreign donor would prejudicially affect the security, strategic, scientific and economic interest of the state and also affect the harmony between religious, social, linguistic or regional groups, castes or communities”, the CBI had said in its reply while opposing her plea.

The agency said the allegations against them (Setalvad and Anand) are serious in nature and it is proposed to unravel all the contours of the offence and the conspiracy during the investigation.

The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Friday saw pandemonium created by opposition members when Opposition Congress-NCP demanded resignation of ministers facing corruption charges.

The ruling BJP-Sena also demanded probe in the multi-crore Annabhau Sathe Corporation scam and arrest of middlemen in the Telgi case.

The House saw disruptions twice before being adjourned for the day as Speaker Haribhau Bagde rushed through the day’s agenda amid pandemonium.

The Treasury and Opposition members displayed placards and shouted slogans resulting in ruckus.

Earlier, Opposition members gathered on the stairs of the Vidhan Bhavan building and staged a sit-in protest demanding resignation of Education Minister Vinod Tawde over his alleged fake degree, Women and Child Welfare minister Pankaja Munde in the ‘chikki’ scam as well as Water Supply Minister Babanrao Lonikar and Minister of State for Home, Ranjit Patil against whom allegations have been made.

As soon as the House assembled for the day and Speaker called for the Question Hour, Leader of Opposition, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil demanded that the adjournment notice regarding the Opposition demand be taken up for discussion.

To counter the Opposition charge, ruling BJP-Sena legislators demanded action against NCP MLA Ramesh Kadam over allegations of siphoning-off funds of Annabhau Sathe Corporation and demanded his arrest.

The ruling party members also displayed placards about arresting middlemen of Abdul Karim Telgi, the main accused in the multi-crore fake stamp paper case following which the House had to be adjourned for 20 minutes.

The Maharashtra government on Friday informed the Legislative Council that it will within a month’s time prepare the draft Bill of the law to protect journalists after consulting Leaders of Opposition and group leaders of parties of both the Houses.

While speaking during the Calling Attention motion, Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde raised the issue of increasing instances of attacks on journalists recently and said that the issue of their security has become very serious.

“Recently, there was an attack on a female journalist when she went to cover a cylinder blast at Santacruz. Another journalist was killed while covering a bar raid in Mira road. The attacks are slowly increasing and the issue of security of journalists has become very serious now. In how many days will the government formulate a law for protection of journalists?” Munde questioned.

In response, Minister of State for Home Ram Shinde said that during the previous government, a committee under then Industries minister Narayan Rane had been set up to formulate a law for the protection of journalists.

“The committee report was even submitted to the state cabinet but a discussion on the issue did not happen then. That committee had five cabinet ministers in it, yet, a law could not be formulated. Now, the state government will also study the report of the Rane committee before formulating a new law,” Shinde said.

He further said that the Director General of Police will be given fresh instructions on the security of journalists keeping in the view the increasing incidents of attacks on them.

“The draft of the Bill for protection of journalists will be ready within a month. Before that, we will hold a meeting with the LoPs and group leaders of political parties of both the Houses so that it can be discussed in detail,” he said.

Munde then claimed that 265 journalists were attacked in the previous year and when asked to give information about it under the RTI, the government said that it does not have the number of journalists attacked.

“Cases of attacks on journalists are increasing by the day and hence a strict law is necessary. After coming up with a Bill, the government should issue a notification soon so that it can be converted into a law during the Winter session of the Assembly,” Munde said.

A late top official of RAW had favoured clemency for death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai blast case Yakub Memon on the ground that he had cooperated with investigating agencies and does not deserve to be hanged.

B Raman, who retired as Additional Secretary in 1994 and was in-charge of counter-terrorism, had written an article for publication containing this view but stopped it from seeing the light of the day following an afterthought.

But the article has now been published on a website which talks about Memon being picked up in Nepal and his subsequent formal arrest at Old Delhi railway station by the CBI.

Chennai-based B S Raghavan, brother of the late Raman, said “everything that has been published is correct and he (Raman) had written it”.

Raman, who passed away in 2013, had written about a “moral dilemma” in his mind ever since he had read about the sentencing of Memon to death by the court in 2006.

“There is not an iota of doubt about the involvement of Yakub and other members of the family in the conspiracy and their cooperation with the ISI till July 1994. In normal circumstances, Yakub would have deserved the death penalty if one only took into consideration his conduct and role before July 1994.

“But if one also takes into consideration his conduct and role after he was informally picked up in Kathmandu, there is a strong case for having second thoughts about the suitability of the death penalty in the subsequent stages of the case,” said the article which has been published after taking permission from his brother.

The writer, who has written a book “The Kaoboys of RAW”, spoke about many questions in his mind before writing the article but said “ultimately, I decided to write this in the belief that it is important to prevent a person, who in my view does not deserve to be hanged, from going to the gallows.”

According to him, Yakub had cooperated with the probe agencies and assisted them by persuading some other members of the Memon family to flee from the protection of the ISI in Karachi to Dubai and surrender to the Indian authorities.

“The cooperation of Yakub with the investigating agencies after he was picked up informally in Kathmandu and his role in persuading some other members of the family to come out of Pakistan and surrender constitute, in my view, a strong mitigating circumstance to be taken into consideration while considering whether the death penalty should be implemented,” he had argued in his article.