SC grants bail to two alleged maoists after 4.5 years’ custody

new delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to two accused persons allegedly belonging to CPI (Maoist) in the 2018 murder case of two leaders of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on the ground that they were in custody for more than four years and charges have not been framed yet, as reported by LiveLaw on Tuesday.

The court further observed that materials placed on record do not state reasonable grounds for believing that the accusations against the appellants of commission of offence under the UAPA are prime facie true and hence the bar against granting bail as per Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was not attracted.

The division bench of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Rajesh Bindal noted: “The appellants are in custody for four and half years.

The charge has not been framed and the prosecution proposes to examine more than 140 witnesses. Some of the accused are absconding. Thus, there is no possibility of the trial commencing in the near future.”

The incident occurred on September 23, 2018 wherein Kidari Sarveswara Rao (a member of the Legislative Assembly and whip of the Telugu Desam Party in Legislative Assembly) and Siveri Soma (former MLA belonging to Telugu Desam Party) were killed near the village Livitiputtu, Pothangi Panchayat within the jurisdiction of Dumbriguda Police Station at Visakhapatnam.

An FIR was lodged by the Personal Secretary of the deceased sitting MLA on the same day against the 45 accused persons allegedly belonging to the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a terrorist organisation notified in the first schedule of the UAPA. The case was subsequently transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The appellants (accused no. 46 and 47 respectively) were arrested on October 13, 2018 and a chargesheet was filed against them on April 10, 2019. In the chargesheet, 79 (initially 85) accused persons and 144 witnesses were named.

Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves submitted before the Court that there is no material against both the accused to show that they

provided shelter and logistic support to the Maoists as well as coaccused

and that they planted landmines.