The Kerala High Court on Tuesday observed that members of banned organisations need not be criminals. Granting bail to four persons arrested by Kerala Police in December last in the name of Maoist connections, Justice SS Satheesh Chandran of the High Court said that all had the right to join organisations and that one need not be a criminal just because he or she is a member of a banned organisation.
Police had arrested the four persons from a lodge in Mavelikkara in Alappuzha district, saying that they were Maoists and that they held a meeting to plan anti-national activities. They had also taken two minor girls, daughters of alleged Maoists Rupesh and Shyna, into custody along with the four persons, triggering a huge controversy.
The arrested persons had held a meeting at a lodge was in no way an indication that they had been involved in anti-national activities, Justice Satheesh Chandran said, adding that the police had not been able to provide any kind of evidence for the charges they had leveled against the arrested persons. The Mavelikkara police had arrested four persons on the basis of a Special Branch report.