The Supreme Court on Thursday granted bail to Twaha Fasal and Allan Shuaib . The two students were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in November 2019 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for their alleged Maoist links.
They were arrested by the Kerala Police for supporting the Maoist Group which was declared as a terrorist organisation.
The Supreme Court kept the order of Kerala High Court aside which had earlier cancelled the bail of Twaha Faisal’s bail. The Supreme Court also rejected the appeal which was filed by the Centre supporting the Kerala High Court’s judgement of not granting bail to the two students.
A bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Ajay Rastogi rejected an appeal filed by the NIA challenging the bail granted to Twaha Fasal and Alan Shuhaib. The NIA accused the youth of being associated with a banned Maoist organisation.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju for the NIA, said that the NIA would apply for sanction under Section 20 of the UAPA, which deals with punishment for being a member of a terrorist organisation.
The two students, pursuing Journalism and Law were arrested from Kozhikode on 2 November, 2019. The Police had found objectionable materials in printed and written form, that included violent exhortations for civil war, which were in tune with the Maoist ideology and a Maoist group which is banned.
They were also a part of CPI(M)’s committee, however, they were expelled from the party after they were linked with Maoists. The Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also claimed that the arrested students were Maoist activists.