Sreenivasan murder case: HC grants bail to four PFI members

The Kerala High Court has granted bail to four members of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) who had been arraigned as accused in the murder of RSS leader Sreenivasan of Palakkad in 2022.

A Division Bench of Justice V. Raja Vijayaraghavan and Justice K.V. Jayakumar granted them bail while hearing their plea challenging the dismissal of their bail applications by the NIA Special Court, Ernakulam. Muhammed Bilal, Riyasudheen, K.P. Ansar, and K.V. Saheer, who were granted bail, had been arraigned as among the accused in the case.

They had been charged with participating in a conspiracy, conducting reconnaissance along with the other accused, and playing a prominent role in facilitating the murder. They contended that, though the incident was a ‘political murder’, the NIA deliberately gave it a communal colour by deleting the name of the political party from the final report, replacing it with ‘a Hindu leader,’ and incorporating provisions under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The NIA deposed before the court that the investigation had revealed that the PFI had a hidden agenda to overthrow democracy in India and to establish Islamic rule by 2047.

The court said that the final report filed by the NIA was voluminous, consisting of 1,688 documents, 1,114 witnesses, 696 material objects, and 10 terabytes of forensic reports. Given the magnitude of the prosecution case and the stay on proceedings issued by the Supreme Court, specifically interdicting the framing of charges, there is no foreseeable possibility of the trial commencing or concluding in the near future. Out of the total 66 accused in the case, 49 had already been enlarged on bail either by the High Court or the Supreme Court, and only 12 remained in custody. The court granted bail to the four accused since the accused persons facing almost similar charges had already been released.