The High Court of Madras has granted bail to a Maoist who had been arrested on suspicion by NIA on condition of giving an oath to the effect that he would abide by the Constitution of India, while swearing his utmost faith by filing an affidavit in Tamil stating that he does not believe in Maoist ideology. He offcourse had to affix his thump impression and sign on the needed documents.
Under the bench of Justice P.N. Prakash and Justice A.A.Nakkiran , the petitioner Suresh Rajan was directed to execute a bond for Rs 25000 for bail along with two sureties, both blood relatives, to the satisfaction of the special court for cases investigated under the NIA Act of 2008. He was also ordered to visit the court everyday at 10.30 am till the further orders come.
It all started in Madurai when one Vivek alias Vivekanandan was initially booked in a case on 15th August 2020,where he had in his Facebook account titled “Thozhar Vivek” wrote a message in Tamil that read that “the Independence that the country obtained in 1947 from the British was a sham and a farce”
In his Facebook post he claimed that India is yet to get rid of feudalism, imperialism and exploitation of the poor. In his post he requested the people to understand and mobilise in the path of war as shown by the Naxalites.
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The post speaks about the real freedom that would be achieved only after following the path of these. The Tallakulam police of Madurai had booked the case on September 1, 2020 and Vivek was put behind the bars on December 16, 2020.
In March 2021, NIA took over the case and arrested Suresh Rajan in the month of June. Suresh Ranjan came in picture because the SIM and Facebook account that Vivek was using for the post belonged to him. What is really interesting is that Suresh Rajan had deleted the account two days after the arrest of Vivek.
NIA included another accused in the case named Mohan who was an advocate by profession, but couldn’t be arrested as he was physically challenged. The advocate has been charged for his mobile was used by Vivek to access the Facebook account and uploaded the objectionable message on the Independence day.
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Vivek was granted bail by the Special Court on May 5, 2021 as NIA had failed to file the charge sheet within 90 days of arrest. The agency had appealed against the grant of bail, but it was rejected. Though NIA preferred an appeal against the grant of bail, the High Court rejected the appeal on June 28, 2021. The charge sheet was meanwhile filed on June 11, 2021.
The bail application of Suresh Rajan was rejected by the Special leading to the present appeal.
The Division Bench agreed with the appellant’s counsel R. Sankarasubbu that the appellant need not be denied the benefit of bail when the prime accused himself had been granted the benefit.
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NIA believed that Suresh Rajan (the appellant) was a staunch believer of Maoist ideology and after taking note of Mr. Sankarasubbu’s submission that the claim was not true, the judges directed the appellant to owe allegiance to the Constitution as a condition to enjoy the benefit of bail.