The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) demanding a stay on an order passed by the Kerala High Court grating bail to CPI(M) members accused of “brutally killing” an RSS member.
Dismissing the petition, a bench of Justices SM Kaul and MM Sundresh stated that it had grave reservations on the factual findings of the case, along with the fact that the CBI did not bring up the case for more than a year and no aggravating circumstances were shown after the respondents were released in pursuant to the impugned order.
However, the premier probe agency also contended that the Kerala HC granted bail through the impugned order in 2021 taking into consideration that the accused were in jail for over six years without a trial, which the CBI said was not due to any delay on its part.
Kerala HC granted bail to accused despite noting they were prima facie guilty of the offences: CBI
The CBI in its petition had argued that the Kerala HC granted bail to the accused despite noting that it was “prima facie convinced that the accused are guilty of committing the offences alleged against them.”
The accused, members of CPI(M), are charged with brutal broad daylight murder of RSS member Shri Janithottathi Manoj and an attempt to murder of one Mr Pramod.
According to the charge-sheet filed in the case, the attack which involved targeting the victim and Pramod with bombs, swords, choppers, etc., which led to the death of RSS member Manoj, was a well-thought-out conspiracy and a planned murder.
In the preliminary charge-sheet, 19 people were named as accused, and later a supplementary charge-sheet was filed which added another 6 to the list of accused.
The court took cognisance of the case in March 2015 and a trial has been pending before the Special Judge (CBI) since then. The CBI noted that the accused had filed several applications from 2015 to 2018, which were rejected on merits while observing that prima facie allegations against them were true.
