The frenzy around Aryan Khan’s bail order yesterday invisibilized an important order handed down by the Supreme Court in a UAPA case.
Justice AS Oka writing for the bench comprising Justice Ajay Rastogi and himself granted bail to Kerala’s Thwaha Fasal accused of alleged Maoist links. The bench set-aside the Kerala High Court’s order cancelling Thwaha’s bail. High Court had said- “when individual rights are pitted against national interest and security, the latter should prevail.
It also added that it did not approve the view of the Special Judge, NIA that bail is the rule and jail, an exception”.The Supreme Court also dismissed the appeal of the NIA seeking cancellation of the bail granted to co-accused Allan Shuhaib.
On merits, the Supreme Court held “mere association with a terrorist organisation is not sufficient to attract Section 38 (offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation) and mere support given to a terrorist organisation is not sufficient to attract Section 39 (offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation) of the UAPA.“The association and the support have to be with intention of furthering the activities of a terrorist organisation. In a given case, such intention can be inferred from the overt acts or acts of active participation of the accused in the activities of a terrorist organization which are borne out from the materials forming a part of charge sheet”, the bench ruled.
On the documents found in possession of the accused, the bench observed, “at a formative young age, the accused nos. 1 and 2 might have been fascinated by what is propagated by CPI (Maoist). Therefore, they may be in possession of various documents/books concerning CPI (Maoist) in soft or hard form. Apart from the allegation that certain photographs showing that the accused participated in a protest/gathering organised by an organisation allegedly linked with CPI (Maoist), prima facie there is no material in the charge sheet to project active participation of the accused nos. 1 and 2 in the activities of CPI (Maoist) from which even an inference can be drawn that there was an intention on their part of furthering the activities or terrorist acts of the terrorist organisation”.
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