The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to former Popular Front of India (PFI) Secretary General Abdul Sathar in the 2022 Palakkad murder conspiracy case involving RSS worker Sreenivasan. [Abdul Sathar v. Union of India & Anr].A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan flagged the State’s attempt to justify Sathar's prolonged detention based on his ideological affiliations. Taking exception to the submission that Sathar should remain in jail to prevent future offences, the Court said,“This is the trend we find. It is because they have adopted a particular ideology (they are put in jail). For ideology you cannot put someone in jail.".The National Investigation Agency (NIA) opposed Sathar’s bail plea, citing 71 previous cases registered against him. It argued that he was the face of the organisation and a key participant of protests that followed arrests of other PFI members. Seven of the FIRs were under Section 353 (assault or criminal force to a public servant in the discharge of their duty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and three under Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot). Senior Advocate Aditya Sondhi, appearing for Sathar, pointed out that all 71 cases arose from a single hartal across Kerala on September 23, 2022, and that Sathar had already secured bail in each of them. He also submitted that the Kerala High Court had earlier passed a direction requiring Sathar to be arrayed as an accused in all hartal-related FIRs because of his position in PFI..When the Bench asked whether Sathar was on bail in all the cases, the NIA admitted that he was, but insisted that he “goes on repeating the offences.” It submitted there was no other way to stop him than to keep him in custody.“That’s the problem with the approach. The approach is—we will keep the person behind the bars,” Justice Oka said. “The process cannot become punishment,” Justice Bhuyan added..The NIA claimed that a photograph of the deceased was found on Sathar’s phone and alleged that he played a pivotal role in the conspiracy. But the Court noted that there was no direct involvement of Sathar in the assassination itself.“As far as assassination of victim Sreenivasan is concerned, there is no direct role attributable to the appellant. The allegations of antecedents are in almost all cases regarding the protests which took place on September 22,” the Court recorded in its order..The murder of Sreenivasan is part of a broader Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Ac (UAPA) case involving allegations of a larger conspiracy by members of the banned organisation PFI to promote communal unrest and target political opponents. On May 19, the Court had granted bail to three co-accused - Saddam Hussain Mk, Ashraf and Noushad M - citing delays in trial and lack of their active participation in the murder. Today, the Court extended the same relief to two others—Yahiya Koya Thangal and Abdul Raoof CA.
