P Jayarajan, Kerala’s top CPI(M) leader, on Monday approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail in the case pertaining to the murder of RSS leader Manoj of Elanthodath in Kathiroor, Kannur. The CBI had on January 21 named Jayarajan, CPI(M)’s Kannur district secretary, as the 25th accused in the murder case.
Jayarajan approached the High Court for bail after the District and Sessions Court in Thalassery, Kannur, rejected his bail application for the third time on January 30. In the bail application, the Marxist leader said that there was political motivation behind the CBI act of naming him as an accused and that it was the result of a conspiracy between the Central and State governments.
Jayarajan’s plan is to anchor his arguments on the technicalities of imposition of charges on him under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). But the CBI is expected to submit before the High Court that more evidences could not be produced in the case as the investigation was continuing. The Thalassery court had rejected his anticipatory bail plea on the first two occasions on the basis of the CBI submission that Jayarajan had not yet been made an accused. However, the court rejected his application for bail after he was made an accused saying that granting bail was impossible in a case in which UAPA was involved.
The CBI, which is looking into the aspect of conspiracy behind Manoj’s murder, is said to have decided not to arrest Jayarajan till the High Court passes its order on his bail application. Jayarajan is expected to surrender before a Magistrate court if the High Court, which may take up the plea this week itself, refuses to grant him bail.
At the same time, Jayarajan, who was undergoing treatment at the AKG Memorial Cooperative Hospital in Thalassery, was on Sunday night shifted to the Medical College Hospital at Pariyaram. The CBI is expected to seek a report on Jayarajan’s health condition from the doctors attending on him.
The State CPI(M) has taken a position that the naming of Jayarajan as an accused in the murder case was the result of a conspiracy between Kerala’s ruling Congress party and the RSS. It says that this was part of a move to keep the senior party leader out of the campaign scene during the Assembly election to be held in May.