Madras HC grants bail to Roopesh, Shyna, and other Maoists

 More than six months after their arrest in Coimbatore, five suspected Maoists, including the couple Roopesh and Shyna, were today granted bail by the Madras High Court.

Justice C T Selvam granted the relief to the five -- Roopesh, Anoop Mathew George, Kannan, Veeramani and Shyna who were arrested by the Q Branch police on May 4, 2015.

They had also been detained under National Security Act.

Roopesh has more than 20 cases against him in Kerala while Shyna has at least two cases against her in Ernakulam.

Veeramani has three pending cases against him in Kerala while Kannan has two cases in Tamil Nadu. Anoop also has a couple of cases against him in Kerala

The five were arrested in a combined operation by police forces of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu from Karumathampatti in Coimbatore on May 4. 

Roopesh is a law graduate, while his wife was an upper division clerk at the Kerala High Court. Roopesh had worked in the students' organization of the CPI-ML (Red Flag), later with the CPI-ML (Janasakthi) and then went on to become an active member of the CPI-ML (Peoples War). Though he was a member of the CPI (Maoist) from the time of its inception in Kerala, he was moved out as State Secretary in early 2011. 

In 2007, the duo went underground for hiding Maoist leader Malla Raji Reddy, who was later arrested from Angamali in 2007. The couple were accused of harbouring Reddy and wife in their home, a laptop belonging to Reddy was recovered from their house later, according to police records. He was one of the few Maoist leaders from Kerala who openly called for armed revolution, and with his arrest the Kerala police is hoping to get information about how the chain operates.