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Want bail, pledge allegiance to Constitution: How Maoist who absconded got relief from Madras HC

New Delhi: The Madras High Court has agreed to give bail to an alleged Maoist, provided she swears her allegiance to the Indian Constitution on affidavit and declares that she does not believe in Maoism.

The order by a division bench of justices P.N. Prakash and R. Hemlatha was pronounced on 3 February. The bench had reserved its verdict on Sathya Mary’s bail petition on 20 December 2021.

The affidavit, the court specified, should be in Tamil, with her signature and thumb impression. In it, the petitioner should swear that she does not believe in violence as an ideology and that she will do nothing to subvert the Constitution, the court directed.

Her bail is also subject to her executing a bond for Rs 25,000, with two sureties of the same amount. The sureties, the court added, should be from her blood relatives.

Mary is facing attempt to murder charges and accusations under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (now repealed), besides Arms Act offences for her alleged involvement in cases of bomb blasts in Chennai in 2003.


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An absconder for 9 years

The accused was in prison for two years before she was let out on bail in April 2005. In 2009, she absconded, which led to the cancellation of her bail in January 2017. In 2018, when proceedings to declare her a proclaimed offender commenced, she surrendered before the court conducting her trial in December 2018. Since then, she has remained in judicial custody.

The high court gave her relief despite stiff opposition from the prosecution, which reminded the court that Mary had been an absconder for almost nine years. In her defence, Mary’s lawyer argued that although she had absconded, she never indulged in any criminal activity during this period. The counsel pleaded leniency in view of her health situation and the fact that she was bedridden and unable to perform routine tasks without the help of others.

On being called by the HC, the medical officer of the prison where Mary is lodged said she was not cooperating with the doctors and refused to take life-saving drugs and even food.

However, the court was inclined to give Mary bail because of her health condition. It also took into consideration her lawyer’s statement that she “has turned over a new leaf and that is why she surrendered in the court in the year 2018″.

“The appellant is accused of being a Moaist, wedded to violence as a means to bring about a political change. Now the question is, if the appellant continues to believe in this ideology, would it be appropriate for this court to release her on bail and allow her to unleash violence on the instrumentalities of the state,” the order said.

“The Indian state now rests on the Constitution of India, drafted by a committee of noble men headed by Dr B.R. Ambedkar.

“We trust the words of Mr R. Sankarasubbu (Mary’s advocate) and hope that the appellant would adjure all forms of violence,” it added.

Preventing conduct of trial

In its order, the court also said people such as Mary, who are “wedded to certain ideology”, do everything “possible to prevent the conduct of the trial, which will not be known to the outside world or to the press”.

Even in Mary’s case, it observed, the special judge holding the trial had with great difficulty fixed a date to complete the hearing. But on the day the first prosecution witness was to be examined, a counsel for the accused withdrew himself from the case and “successfully prevented” the trial from proceeding further.

On account of such tactics, evidence disappears, eventually leading to the acquittal of those arrested in such cases, the court noted. It then leads to a lot of “hue and cry” with critics blaming the system for the prolonged incarceration of the accused without any material.

“This is the bane of our present-day criminal justice system and we have to grudgingly endure it,” the court said, adding that in granting bail to Mary despite “all this”, it was “applying a soothing balm, in order to give her an opportunity to reaffirm her allegiance to the Constitution”.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)


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Source: The Print

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