Sloganeering against CM: Kerala HC grants bail to 3 accused

Kochi: The Youth Congress workers, who protested against the Kerala Chief Minister aboard a plane after landing at Thiruvananthapuram airport, were granted bail by the High Court of Kerala on Thursday, observing that there is no need for further custodial interrogation, PTI reported.

The court also granted anticipatory bail to the third accused, ordering him to surrender before the probing officer on June 28 to cooperate with the investigation.

The three accused, namely Furseen Majeed, RK Naveen, and Sujith Narayan, received bail on conditions of furnishing a bond of Rs 50,000 and two sureties of the same amount. They were also ordered to appear before the investigation officer (IO) whenever required, cooperate with the probe and surrender their passports. Also, they shall not intimidate witnesses.

Justice Viju Abraham observed that the Airport Manager's report stated that the airport authority was informed that an alleged altercation occurred on board the flight between three passengers. The court said, "A subsequent report by the Airport Manager dated June 14, 2022, also revealed that after landing, as soon as seat belt sign went off, the said passengers immediately stood up from their respective seats and rushed toward the Chief Minister, shouting slogans in the vernacular language and upon seeing this one of the passengers travelling with the Chief Minister intervened."

The court said that no attempt was made to arrest him, and he left the airport as any other passenger.

"Insofar as there is no case that the motive for the alleged incident is of any personal enmity and it was a part of the agitation, there is no reason to believe that the petitioner (Narayanan) will repeat the alleged offence.

"As regards the contention of the Director-General of Prosecution that custodial interrogation of the petitioner is required to unravel the larger conspiracy, I am not persuaded to think that custodial interrogation of the petitioner is required for that purpose," the judge said.

Further, the court observed that none of the accused was carrying weapons, and the motive behind their actions amounted to no personal enmity.

The case against the three was that on June 13 evening, defying the aircraft crew's directions, they shouted at Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and attempted to murder him. The event happened when CM's flight from Kannur landed in TVM.

The three were also accused of hurting CM's security personnel, stopping him from doing his duty.