Madras HC grants bail to youth booked under UAPA

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday granted conditional bail to a youth who was booked by the Coimbatore city police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for conspiring to murder a Hindu man who allegedly prevented his son from converting to Islam to marry his lover – a Muslim girl.

The division bench of Justice S Vaidyanathan and Justice AD Jagadish Chandira granted bail to Sadam Hussain of Tiruchy on allowing his criminal appeal petition. The bench granted relief on the ground that the mere allegation by the prosecution saying that the youth planned to murder a man named Kumaresan in Coimbatore will not fall under the terror act.

“There was no complaint from any person and nobody was injured in this case. Therefore, in the opinion of this court, the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act have been included only in order to deny or delay the appellant from getting bail from the court. The court is of the opinion that the allegations against the appellant do not fall within the definition of the "Terrorist Act" and there are no reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against the appellant is prima facie true,” the judges held.

The petitioner challenged the order of the judgment of the Vacation -& Sessions Judge, Coimbatore dismissing the bail application on May 12.

The judges further highlighted that when the police wanted the NIA to take over the case for a probe, the NIA rejected it. The bench further noted that the prosecution did not provide any evidence to show that the appellant tried to murder Kumaresan for creating fear among people who has other faiths to not venture into marrying a Muslim woman.

The case is pertaining to the arrest of Sadam Hussain, a social activist alleging he and four of his friends tried to kill Kumaresan since the latter objected his son Arun Kumar from converting to Islam to marry one Sahanaazmi, daughter of Tiruvarur-based Raja Mohammed and Noor Nisha.