The Kerala High Court on Thursday granted bail to Jonathan Baud, a 24-year-old Swiss national arrested by the State police on July 28 on suspected Maoist links after he attended a meeting of Naxalite and Maoist sympathizers at Thriprayar in Thrissur district.
Granting bail to Baud, said to be a researcher in history at the University of Geneva, Justice Abraham Mathew of the High Court directed him to deposit `1,00,000 in cash and to surrender his passport. The Swiss national had arrived in India on July 10 on a tourist passport and had stayed at a hotel in Kannur since July 24 with his French girlfriend Valerie Celine.
As per the conditions under which the bail was granted, Baud, after release on bail, will have to produce an undertaking from the Swiss embassy to the effect that they will ensure his presence for the investigation or at the trial. In the bail application moved on Tuesday, baud submitted that he had not committed any crime the police had accused him of.
The Valappad police in Thrissur district had arrested him on the night of July 28 after he attended the meeting, organized to commemorate a Maoist, Sinoj, who was reportedly killed over a month ago in Andhra Pradesh jungles while making bombs, on the charge of violation of visa conditions under the Foreigners’ Act.
Baud submitted in the bail application that he had attended the meeting out of curiosity after he saw during his travel through Thriprayar a gathering of people and because he was a keen observer of social movements. He said he knew nothing of the background of the meeting or its organizers.