Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday granted bail to 17 accused PFI members in the 2022 murder case of RSS leader Srinivasan in the Palakkad district.
A bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan and P V Balakrishnan granted the relief to Shefeek, Jafar B., Nassar, Jamsheer H, Abdul Basith, Muhammed Shefeek K, Ashraf K, Jishad B., Ashraf Moulavi, and Sirajudheen.
The 17 had moved the High Court against an NIA special court’s decision denying them bail in the case.
Meanwhile, the court rejected the bail plea of nine others in the cases.
Social Democratic Party of India leader Karamana Ashraf Moulavi was among the nine whose bail plea was rejected.
The court said that the accused who were granted bail must surrender their passports to the trial court and should not leave the state without the Special Court’s permission.
The court further asked the PFI members to inform the Investigating Officer of the NIA about their address and appear before the investigation agency when required. The accused should use only one mobile number, the court directed. It further said that the phones of the accused must be paired with that of the NIA, and the GPS should be on throughout the day.
PFI was banned on September 28, 2022. Following the ban, the NIA filed a case against 65 PFI workers.
The six accused in this case were also involved in Palakkad RSS leader Srinivasan’s murder case. Srinivasan’s murder was allegedly retaliation for the killing of a SDPI worker, Subair, who was hacked to death allegedly by RSS workers in Palakkad.
The charge sheets of the two cases were later merged by the NIA under the UAPA Act.
