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The Kerala High Court has granted bail to Muhammed Haroon, the sixth accused in the murder of RSS worker Sanjith, observing that the alleged Popular Front of India membership is insufficient to “attract culpability.”
“As far as the petitioner in this case is concerned, he has been in custody since 23.01.2022 and thus, more than two years and nine months have elapsed. Moreover, the petitioner was never involved in any other offences in the past. Even though there is an allegation that he was an active member of PFI, a banned organisation, it was contended by the petitioner that, as on the date of commission of the crime, it was not banned. The said contention is not denied by the prosecution. Therefore, the fact that he was a member of such an organisation, by itself, would not attract any culpability, warranting incarceration, and it is for the prosecution to establish the role of the petitioner, in the trial,” said Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A.
Haroon told the court that he had been in custody since January 2022 and cited his long incarceration in custody to seek bail.
The prosecution alleged that Haroon was an active member of the Popular Front of India (PFI), which is a banned organisation. It was also alleged that PFI was behind the murder of Sanjith. It is also alleged that Haroon participated in five conspiracies held by the accused, out of the total seven conspiracies. It was submitted that his earlier two bail applications were rejected and there was no change in circumstances, Live Law reported.
The HC noted that the allegations against Haroon do not state that he was physically involved in the murder of Sanjith. The Court went on to state that the allegations against him were of criminal conspiracy which has to be proved in trial.
“….long incarceration of the accused and the delay in trial by itself cannot be grounds to grant bail to the accused. However, certain observations repeatedly made by the Honourable Supreme Court in the recent decisions, that too in cases involving offences under special enactments such as, NDPS Act, UAPA etc., where additional conditions are imposed for granting bail, cannot be lost sight of”, stated the Court, according to Live Law.
“..taking note of the period of incarceration of the petitioner, possible delay in completing the trial and the nature of allegations against the petitioner, I am inclined to grant bail,” said the Court.
RSS worker Sanjith was murdered on November 15, 2011 allegedly by five persons due to political animosity. During the investigation, Haroon was implicated as the sixth accused for hatching conspiracy with other accused for the murder. The crime was registered alleging the commission of offences punishable under sections 143,144,147,148,341,302,120B, 201,212,109,118, 465, 471 read with 149 of the IPC & section 27(3) r/w 7(a) and (b) of the Arms Act.
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