Kerala High Court Grants Interim Bail To SFI Leader For Appearing In Exam

The Kerala High Court on Friday granted interim bail to the State Secretary of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) who was taken into custody for the second time after he violated the bail conditions imposed on him.Justice Viju Abraham granted interim bail to Arsho P.M till 3rd August, permitting him to appear for his exams conducted by the MG University which are scheduled from 23rd July till 3rd August.While granting interim bail, the Court also imposed a condition that he shall only enter the Ernakulam district for the purpose of writing the examination. Counsel appearing for the accused, Advocate P.K Varghese, produced before the court the hall ticket and timetable for the examination, and the Judge found them to be authentic. The granting of the bail was strongly opposed by the Public Prosecutor, citing that no lenience should be shown to the accused who had previously violated the conditions imposed while granting the bail. The 27-year-old SFI leader was the second accused in a case where a group of people trespassed into the residence of the defacto complainant in 2018 with an intention to commit culpable homicide and attacked him with deadly weapons causing injuries.The prosecution case was that the petitioner, along with four others in pursuance of a conspiracy hatched by them with the intention to commit the murder of the defacto complainant, trespassed into his rented room with dangerous weapons like a knife and iron pipe, shouting to do away with the defacto complainant, physically assaulted him with these weapons, thereby causing imminent threat to life.He was thereby arrested in 2019 under Sections 323, 324, 455, 308, 506 and 427 of the IPC. The investigation was handed over to the District Crime Branch, which slapped another charge under Section 458 IPC.However, he was released on bail two months later with conditions, including one that he shall not get involved in any other crime and that any such involvement will be a ground for cancellation of bail.Nevertheless, he was arrested again after he allegedly got himself involved in 12 crimes while out on bail. Thereby the bail granted to him was cancelled. This cancellation of bail was challenged by the petitioner before several fora but to no avail.Finally, he had approached the High Court recently seeking statutory bail contending that he has been in custody for over 79 days in total and that the charge sheet had not been filed to date. It was contended that on completion of 60 days, he has the right to statutory bail under S.167(2)(a)(ii) CrPC. However, a Single Bench had denied him statutory bail last week, observing that he cannot be equated to a person who continues in custody without any charge sheet being filed against him. The case has been posted for 4th August for further consideration. Case Title: Arsho P.M v. State of KeralaCitation: 2022 LiveLaw (Ker) 369

Kerala High Court Grants Interim Bail To SFI Leader For Appearing In Exam

Athira Prasad & Hannah M Varghese

Tags