The Principal Sessions Court of Thalassery in Kannur, Kerala on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail application filed by CPI(M)’s Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan in the case pertaining to the brutal murder of RSS leader Manoj of Elanthodath in Kathiroor in the district on September 1 last year.
Principal Sessions Judge R Narayana Pisharody said the bail plea was being rejected as the case had been registered as per sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The CBI, which is investigating the case, has reportedly learned that Jayarajan had participated in the conspiracy that had led to the murder of the RSS leader.
Jayarajan had filed the bail plea in the court on July 10 on the basis of the assumption that the CBI could name him as an accused in the case. The agency had questioned him for nearly five hours in Thiruvananthapuram in connection with the case onJune 2. He had prayed for bail citing the several health problems for which he was currently undergoing treatment.
During arguments over the bail plea last week and earlier this week, the CBI had told the court that Jayarajan’s request for bail need not be considered as the agency had not listed him as an accused and no plan existed at present to arrest him. It had also said that bail could not be granted in such case in which Section 43D of the UAPA had been made applicable.
As the anticipatory bail plea has been rejected, the CBI is likely to take Jayarajan into custody soon by naming him as an accused. The influential Marxist leader, chief of the strongest CPI(M) district unit in the entire country, is currently undergoing physiotherapy at the AKG Memorial Hospital in Kannur after angioplasty.
The only option before Jayarajan now is to approach the High Court, and his lawyer K Viswan said that this was exactly what they were going to do. “There is no reason why my client cannot get anticipatory bail,” Viswan said while the CPI(M) leadership said the party would continue the legal battle to protect Jayarajan.
Manoj, Kannur district Sharirik Shiksha Pramukh of the RSS, was hacked to death by a Marxist killer gang on September 1 last when he was proceeding from Kathiroor to Kannur in his Maruti Omni vehicle. The killers had dragged him out and hacked him to death after creating a terror scene by hurling country-made bombs at the vehicle.
The case was first investigated by a special team of the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police, which had named 18 Marxists as accused. The Kerala Government later handed over the investigation to the CBI in the context of pressures from the BJP and RSS for a probe into the conspiracy behind the murder.