A Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Kochi granted conditional bail to Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal who were arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in November 2019. The court has stipulated a few conditions including that the duo must surrender their passports, they need to sign the register at a local police station on the first Saturday of every month and should not have any connection with Maoist groups, according to reports.
The bail has been granted on the personal security bond of Rs 1 lakh each filed by Alan and Thaha's parents.
In a 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 did have a connection with Maoists and they have been in jail for more than 10 months.
Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fazal were arrested on November 1, 2019 for allegedly possessing and distributing brochures favouring Maoists. They were arrested by Thunderbolt, the anti-insurgency force of the Kerala police, from a forest area in Palakkad. The NIA took over the case in December.
The Left government in Kerala received severe criticism for slapping draconian UAPA charges on the students. This escalated further with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's statement that both Alan and Thaha are Maoists.
21-year old Alan and 25-year old Thaha were CPI(M) workers in Kozhikode. Alan was a worker of the Thiruvannur Branch Committee and Thaha was a member of the Paramel Branch Committee.
In June this year Alan was granted permission to visit a critically ill relative for three hours. During the visit, Alan had told the media that NIA had given him an offer to make him an approver in the case.
It had also been reported that Alan told the NIA court that NIA was trying to make him approver by giving a statement against Thaha and CP Usman, the third accused in the case. The charge sheet was filed in April this year.
Also Read: Solidarity for Kerala students Alan Suhaib and Thaha Fazal charged under UAPA grows