A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Swapna Suresh, Sarith PS and six other accused in the diplomatic gold smuggling case, registered against them by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The Bench comprising Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice C Jayachandran passed the verdict while allowing the appeals filed by the accused against the Ernakulam NIA Special Court’s order rejecting their pleas for bail in the case. The other accused who got bail are Mohammed Shafi P, Jalal AM, Rabins Hammed, Ramees KT, Sharafudeen K and Mohammed Ali.

The NIA case is that the accused with the requisite knowledge and intention to threaten and destabilise the economic security of the country had conspired with each other, recruited persons, formed a terrorist gang, raised funds, and smuggled gold from the UAE in large quantity through the diplomatic channel. Thus, they had damaged the country’s friendly relations with the UAE and committed terrorist activities punishable under the Sections 16, 17, 18, and 20 of the UAPA.

Allowing the appeals, the Bench observed that the facts narrated and the charges alleged did not “commend us to find the accused having any connection with any terrorist act under Section 15 of the UAPA, least of all, a threat to the economic security of the nation”.

The court added that on a deeper probe there was no element of terrorist activity unearthed and as of now the accusations and allegations were summarised in the charge-sheet which, but for the interspersed words of a terrorist act, did not reveal any such act.

Conditions

The court ordered that the accused be released on bail on their executing a bond for ₹25 lakh each with two solvent sureties each for the like-sum to the satisfaction of the NIA Special Court. The other conditions include their appearance before the station house officer on all Sundays and deposit of their passports before the NIA Special Court in three days of release from custody. The court also stipulated that they should not leave the State without the permission of the NIA Special Court.

The accused in their petition pointed out that the crime was registered for the offense under the UAPA on the suspicion that the proceedings of smuggling might have been used for financing terrorism in the country. However, the charge sheet filed after the conclusion of the investigation had ruled out the possibility of financing terrorism and the involvement of the transnational forces. Besides, the trial in the case was unlikely to commence in the near future.

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