AKG Centre attack case: Kerala court grants pre-arrest bail to accused woman

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 22 (PTI) A Kerala court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to one of the accused, a Youth Congress worker, in the case related to the attack on the AKG Centre, the state headquarters of the ruling CPI(M) in Thiruvananthapuram, on June 30.

Additional Sessions Judge Prasun Mohan granted the relief to Navya T, who is accused of conspiring to cause destruction of the state headquarters of CPI(M), saying there was no likelihood of her absconding or influencing "witnesses of the ruling party" and her past act of appearing before the IO indicates her willingness to cooperate with the probe.

The court said there was no need for custodial interrogation of the accused and her "limited custody" would be sufficient for going ahead with the investigation in the case.

Granting her anticipatory bail, the court directed the accused to "surrender and appear" before the investigating officer (IO) on November 24 for facing interrogation from then to November 30 from 9 AM to 7 PM, if required by the police, as part of the "limited custody".

The court said that if she is arrested post interrogation and investigation, she shall be released on bail on her executing a bond of Rs one lakh with two solvent sureties of the like amount.

The accused was directed not to leave Kerala during the course of the probe without permission of jurisdictional magistrate, surrender her mobile phones to the IO and tender details of her social media accounts to the police as part of cooperating with the investigation.

She was also directed by the court not to commit any similar offence while on bail and not to intimidate any witnesses or any other persons connected with the case.

The other facts considered by the court in arriving at its decision were that in the scientific investigation report attached to the case diary, was that the explosive material was a "firecracker", no person was injured in the alleged incident and There is no police report regarding property loss, if any, sustained to the pillar of the gate as a consequence of the alleged explosion.

The sessions court also noted that there was no CCTV footage which shows the woman delivering the two-wheeler used in the crime and that it was also questionable whether she was a "conscious" possessor of the scooter and explosive substance.

These aspects will have to be tested during the trial, it said.

According to the prosecution, pursuant to the alleged conspiracy, the first accused hurled an explosive substance into the compound of AKG Centre, but missed the target and hit the pillar of the entry gate.

The prosecution had also claimed that the accused woman carried the bomb on a Honda Dio scooter and handed over the explosive and the two-wheeler to the first accused.

The prosecution's claims were refuted by advocate Mridul John Mathew, appearing for the accused woman, who had contended that she was falsely implicated in the case as the first accused was her family friend.

He had also argued that Navya was working at Lulu Mall till around 10.20 PM on the date of incident and therefore, she could not have handed over the explosive substance and two-wheeler to the first accused.

It was also argued on her behalf that she has a Yamaha Ray scooter and none of the CCTV visuals collected by police would show her riding a Honda Dio two-wheeler on that day, Mathew told the court.

She readily appeared before the investigating officer when called for questioning and cooperated with the police, he had argued.

The first accused, Jithin, was granted bail by the Kerala high Court on October 21 after he was apprehended by Crime Branch wing of police on September 23.

The probe was transferred to the Crime Branch after three weeks of the incident on June 30 when an unidentified person hurled an explosive substance towards the office compound of the AKG Centre.

The Marxist party had alleged that the Congress was behind the incident, which the latter denied.

A case was registered with the Cantonment police station on July 1 in this regard under Section 436 of the Indian Penal Code (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc.) and Section 3(a) of the Explosive Substances Act (causing explosion likely to endanger life or property). PTI HMP SS SS