Kerala BJP’s State General Secretary K Surendran has finally been granted conditional bail by the Kerala High Court in the case of a plot to attack a 52-year-old woman at Sabarimala on November 6. He was charged with conspiracy in an attempt to commit culpable homicide (sec 308) and use of criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman (sec 354) of the IPC.
Surendran was granted the bail on Friday morning under four conditions, as reported by LiveLaw. He cannot enter Pathanamthitta district, where Sabarimala is situated, for a period of two months. He must also execute a bond of Rs 2,00,000, surrender his passport before a trial court and shall not be involved in any other similar offences.
K Surendran’s lawyer, advocate Haridas, told TNM on Friday morning that once these formalities are completed and the Central Jail in Thiruvananthapuram has received the bail order, K Surendran would be able to leave the jail.
He had earlier been denied bail in this case twice, by a Ranni court on November 24, and the Pathanamthitta Principal Sessions Court on December 1.
K Surendran had been held in judicial custody since he was arrested from Nilakkal at Sabarimala on November 17, under preventive detention, and was charged with obstructing a public officer from doing his duties. While already in judicial custody for the case, it was found that he was named as an accused, or had production warrants pending against him, in other cases, including the November 6 case to trap a woman devotee at Sabarimala, and a 2016 case involving obstruction of public pathways and intimidation of a public servant.
Due to these pending cases, he was not released from jail after being arrested on November 17, despite receiving bail for the original case he was arrested for.
K Surendran, his lawyer, and BJP supporters have claimed that he had a series of false cases foisted against him in order to ensure that he does not leave prison. The police say that they discovered his involvement in these cases upon further investigation, and when they were preparing his remand report.