Pantheerankavu UAPA case: Kerala HC rejects bail plea of 4th accused

Kochi (Kerala) [India], June 1 (ANI): Kerala High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Vijith Vijayan in the Pantheerankavu UAPA case for alleged Maoist links.
Vijayan, the resident of Wayanad district in Kerala, is the fourth accused in the said case.
He was arrested on 21 January 2021 and approached the High Court after his recent bail plea was rejected by the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court.
While rejecting the bail plea, the Division Bench of Justices K Vinod Chandran and C Jayachandran observed in their judgement, "The questioned documents, as examined by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) prima facie bring forth the intention of the appellant to indulge actively in the furtherance of extremist ideologies of the Maoist movement."
"Prima facie truth in the allegation raised against the appellant (Vijith Vijayan) has to be found that the appellant was a member and occupied an important position at the organisational level, was actively involved in propagating the ideology of revolt against the elected Governments and was also engaged in recruitment as also defining the manner in which the ideology is to be effectively implemented in society," they noted.
The case pertains that three young men, found under suspicious circumstances in November 2019, were arrested by the Pantheerankavu Police while on patrolling duty. Out of the three, two-- Thwaha Fasal and Allen Shuhaib-- were already apprehended under the UAPA alleging that they were supporting proscribed Maoist groups, which have been declared terrorist organisations. Later the case was taken up by the NIA.
Notably, Fasal and Shuhaib were granted bail by the Supreme Court on 28 October 2021, while the third accused CP Usman is absconding. (ANI)