The Kerala High Court on Tuesday, June 25, granted bail to 17 of 26 Popular Front of India (PFI) members arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the murder case of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader KS Sreenivasan in Palakkad district.
Sreenivasan was allegedly murdered by PFI activists on April 16, 2022 in retaliation to the murder of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) activist Subair, who was reportedly killed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members on April 15, 2022. According to an inquest report, Sreenivasan had ten deep wounds, including three deep cuts on his head.
According to LiveLaw, the judgement was passed after twenty six individuals belonging to the Popular Front of India (PFI) who were accused in the murder case appealed to the high court after the special court for trial of NIA cases in Ernakulam denied their bail petition.
A division bench comprising Justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Syam Kumar VM granted bail to the 17 accused stating there were no reasonable grounds to believe that the accusations made against them were prima facie true. However, the court has laid down certain conditions for the bail. The accused have been directed to provide details of their mobile phone to the investigation team, to use a single phone number, and to keep the GPS tracker on their mobile phones always on to trace their location. They were also directed to surrender their passports before the trial court.
However, the High Court division bench rejected the bail petitions of nine PFI activists accused in the case citing that there were reasonable grounds to believe the accusations made against them by the NIA were prima facie true. The court said they were legally disqualified to receive bail under section 43D (5) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), reported LiveLaw.