Kerala HC sets aside bail granted to Thaha Fasal in the UAPA case

The Kerala High Court on Monday set aside the order passed by Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court in Kochi granting bail to Thaha Fasal, who had been booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in November 2019 for alleged Maoist links.

The High Court, however, has not cancelled the bail granted to Allan Shuhaib, who was arrested along with Thaha, reportedly citing his age and treatment. The HC said that it was not interfering with the bail granted to Alan Suhaib at the moment, reports Live Law. 

A division bench comprising Justices A Hariprasad and K Haripal allowed the appeal filed by NIA against the September 9 order by the NIA court.

NIA court grants bail to Alan and Thaha who have been in jail for 10 months

Apart from directing Thaha to surrender before the trial court, HC has also directed the NIA court to complete the trial within a year. However, the reasons for cancelling the bail will be known after a copy of the High Court judgement is released.

The NIA court had granted conditional bail to Alan and Thaha in September 2020. In the bail petition filed in the court, Alan and Thaha had argued that no evidence had yet been provided by investigating agencies to prove that they had a connection with Maoists and yet they have been in jail for more than ten months.

They were arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on November 1, 2019, for allegedly possessing and distributing pro-Maoist brochures. The arrest was made by Thunderbolt, the elite anti-insurgency force in the state, from a forest area in Palakkad. The case was taken over by the NIA in December 2019. The Left-government in Kerala was slammed for imposing the draconian UAPA on the two men. Both of them were CPI(M) activists. The party expelled them following the arrest.