In-flight protest against Kerala CM: HC grants bail to 2 Cong workers

The Kerala High Court on Thursday granted bail to two Youth Congress workers, who protested against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on board an aircraft after it landed at Thiruvananthapuram airport, saying their further custodial interrogation was not required.

Justice Viju Abraham also granted anticipatory bail to the third accused in the case and directed him to surrender before the investigating officer (IO) on June 28 for interrogation and to cooperate with the probe. The first two accused — Furseen Majeed and RK Naveen — who were arrested on June 14 and in the custody of the investigating agency till date were ordered to be released on bail by the court subject to the conditions that each of them would furnish a bond of Rs 50,000 with two sureties of the like amount.

The other conditions imposed on them were that they shall appear before the IO as and when required, shall cooperate with the investigation, shall not intimidate witnesses and shall surrender their passports, if they have it. The third accused — Sujith Narayanan — was granted anticipatory bail subject to the same conditions as imposed on the other two as the high court was of the opinion that his custodial interrogation was not required.

The court further said that if the third accused was arrested by the police, he would be produced before the jurisdictional court and released on bail on furnishing a bond of Rs 50,000 with two sureties of the like amount. The court, while granting the relief to Majeed and Naveen, observed that the report of the Airport Manager to the Station House Officer, Valiyathura Police Station, which is first in point of time, “only says that they were informed that an alleged altercation took place on board the flight between three passengers”.