CPI(M) leader's bail plea in RSS activist murder case rejected

 A court on Tuesday dismissed the anticipatory bail petition of CPI (M) District Secretary P Jayarajan in the case related to the murder of RSS functionary E Manoj in September 2014, being investigated by CBI.
Judge V G Anilkumar of District and Sessions Court in Thalassery rejected the plea of Jayarajan, who had been summoned by CBI in connection with the probe, holding that the petitioner cannot be granted the relief since he was not an accused in the case.

CBI counsel S Krishnakumar opposed the bail plea on the ground that the accused in the case had also been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Jayarajan moved the bail plea on January 11 a day after CBI served him summons for a second time asking him to appear before the investigating officers at Thalassery camp. The agency had issued the first summons on January 6.

In his petition, Jayarajan contended that the summons were "politically motivated" and the move was only to arrest and harass him. 42-year-old Manoj, a district functionary of RSS, was hacked to death in the politically-volatile Kathiroor in Kannur district on September 1, 2014 allegedly by a group of CPI-M workers. 

CBI, which took over the investigation in the case, had filed a charge sheet against 19 accused in the Thalassery court in March last year. Manoj was an accused in a case relaCBted to an unsuccessful attempt on Jayarajan's life in 1999.