A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday granted bail to 17 workers of the outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI) in a case relating to the murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Sreenivasan of Palakkad.
The Bench comprising A. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Syam Kumar V.M., however, dismissed the bail pleas of nine other accused.
The court denied bail to Saddam Hussain M.K., Ashraf, Noushad M., Ashraf Moulavi, Ansari E.P., Mohammad Ali K., alias Kunjappu, Yahiya Koya Thangal, Abdul Raoof C.A., and Abdul Sathar observing that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the accusation against these accused were prima facie true.
The investigation into the murder that took place at Melamuri Junction in Palakkad town on April 16, 2022 was taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) following allegations that the murder was part of a larger criminal conspiracy to instigate communal violence and radicalise the outlawed organisation’s cadres to commit terrorist acts in the State and other parts of the country.
As many as 51 PFI workers were arraigned as accused and 44 among them had been arrested. While one accused died, seven accused could not be arrested as they went into hiding. Chargesheets were filed before the NIA Special Court, Ernakulam, against 26 accused on July 13, 2022.
The court while granting bail to 17 accused observed that, prima facie, the probe team did not confirm the direct involvement of these accused in the crime. The court passed the order on the appeals filed by the accused against the NIA special court order dismissing their bail petitions.
As part of the bail conditions, the court ordered the accused to keep the location status (GPS) of their mobile phones active and their phones be paired with that of the investigating officer of the NIA to enable him, at any given time, to identify their location.
They shall not leave the State without the permission of the special court and should surrender their passport, if any, and should use only one mobile number and inform the police about the address of their residence.
Published - June 25, 2024 07:18 pm IST
