The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to 23 accused, including P.P. Moideen Koya, former president of the IUML Beypore constituency, in the second Marad riots case in Kerala.
A Bench of Justices S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Ranjan Gogoi granted bail after hearing senior counsel Amarendra Saran and counsel Haris Beeran for the accused and senior counsel V. Giri for the State.
The petitioners in their bail application said they had already filed their appeal against the final judgment and order dated August 16, 2012 of the Kerala High Court reversing the trial court order of acquittal and awarding life sentence to them.
They said that in January this year their bail plea was rejected stating that they could renew their plea after six months. Hence, the present application.
They said they were in judicial custody throughout for a period of more than five years during trial. “This brings the time spent by them in prison to a total of six years,” they said.
They said “they are all daily wage labourers eking out a living as coolies and fishermen with families who rely on their income for their subsistence and who have all suffered irrevocable financial difficulties as a result of the petitioners six years of incarceration. Some of them are terminally ill. If the present application for bail is not entertained, they may have to suffer the sentence till the Criminal Appeal is decided finally by this court.”
