MHC grants bail to a life convict alleging as conspired to kill Hindu leaders

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court (MHC) granted bail to a life-sentenced convict who was arrested for conspiring to annihilate the Hindu religious leader in the name of 'Jihad', allegedly.

Tada Aslam, a life convict, filed an appeal before the MHC seeking to grant bail by setting aside the order of Sessions Court under Exclusive Trial of Bomb Blast/POTA/NIA Cases, Chennai. The case was listed before Justice MS Ramesh and Justice Sunder Mohan.

According to the prosecution the appellant and the other 18 accused were conspiring to kill the Hindu religious leader and had played an active role in promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion.

Further, they were aggrieved as the State is not releasing the Muslim prisoners, who were in Coimbatore prison for several years without any remission or commutation, said the prosecution. Hence the accused raised funds through the Charitable Trust of Minorities (CTM) to help the Muslim prisoners and to procure weapons to prevent the growth of other religious organizations which do not agree with the Islamic principles, said the prosecution.

In 2013, the CB CID arrested all the accused including the appellant under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and the Arms Act, 1959.

The appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case. The State had recommended for premature release of the appellant from the murder case, however, it is still pending before the Governor.

At this stage, the appellant moved the MHC seeking bail from the conspiracy case. Senior counsel R Sankarasubbu, appeared for the appellant, that his client has been in detention for the past 10 years, the CB-CID had not recovered any incriminating materials against the appellant except the confession of the co-accused.

Additional public prosecutor E Raj Thilak submitted that the appellant had played an active part in the conspiracy and was involved in several sensitive murder cases and had furnished the details of the murder cases registered against the appellant. After the perusal of the materials and documents, the bench granted bail to the appellant, as the State has recommended the appellant's premature release and four and half years have elapsed since the dismissal of the earlier bail plea of the appellant.

Further, the bench directed the appellant to appear before the trial court once in a week until further orders.