NIA court grants bail to two students held under UAPA in Kerala

Granting bail with stringent conditions to Thaha Fazal and Allan Shuhaib, the NIA court directed them to appear before their respective police stations on the first Saturday of every month, surrender their passports and not to get in touch with Maoist outfits. "The petitioners shall not indulge in any criminal activities while on bail or shall in any manner associate with or support the banned CPI(Maoist) and all its formations," the court said.

A special court here on Wednesday granted bail to two students, arrested in November last year under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for their alleged Maoist links. Granting bail with stringent conditions to Thaha Fazal and Allan Shuhaib, the NIA court directed them to appear before their respective police stations on the first Saturday of every month, surrender their passports and not to get in touch with Maoist outfits.

"The petitioners shall not indulge in any criminal activities while on bail or shall in any manner associate with or support the banned CPI(Maoist) and all its formations," the court said. The court also directed to offer close relatives as sureties besides executing bail bonds for Rs one lakh each.

"One of the sureties of each petitioner shall be parent of the respective petitioner and other surety shall be a near relative of the respective petitioner," the court said in its order. The two accused have been in judicial remand since November last year.

The court, while granting bail, observed that the petitioners do not have any influential background and they belong to middle class families. "I don't find any danger of justice being thwarted by granting bail to the petitioners," it said.

Noting that the petitioners are budding youngsters, the court said it appears that they used to be proactive on each and every contentious social and political issues. "Such persons will be more prone to extremist ideologies and probably that may be the reason for the petitioners to come in contact with the banned organisation.

Petitioners are young men with a possibility of reforming themselves. Therefore, to some extent the court has to be lenient to them on the question of granting bail but with a clear message that the chance given for reformation shall not be mistaken as an opportunity to fasten their bond with the banned terrorist organisation and to be part of it," the court said. The court said one cannot have recourse to violent methods to overawe a democratically elected government or legally formed governmental machinery, even though people aretempted to have recourse to such things.

The court expressed hope that the parents of the petitioners would play a constructive role in the betterment of their mental and psychological qualities. Fazal and Shuhaib, who are students of Journalism and Law respectively and CPI(M)'s branch committee members, were arrested on November 2 last year from Kozhikode, causing widespread criticism in the Left-ruled state.

The CPI(M) in Kerala had expelled them from the party following their alleged link with Maoists.PTI TGBROH BN WELCOME BN WELCOME.