The Supreme Court on Friday gave a notification to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the appeal of Kerala student Thwaha Fasal against Kerala High Court’s request excusing his bail plea in the UAPA case against him. The bench including Justices Navin Sinha and Ajay Rastogi has requested that NIA to react within three weeks.
24 year old Thwaha Fasal and 20 year old Allan Shuaib, who are students of journalism and law respectively and CPI(M’s) branch board individuals, were arrested by the NIA on November 2, 2019 under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for their supposed Maoist connections.
However recently the High Court cancelled the bail to Thwaha Fasal, asking him to surrender immediately, while it allowed Allan to continue on bail considering his young age, medical condition and a different degree of involvement in the case.
“Allan got bail due to his medical conditions, I don’t know if there is anything else behind it,” Thwaha’s mother Jameela replied to the question of suspicion behind the rejection of her son’s bail.
“We still have hope, my son haven’t done anything to be be kept behind bars. He was an voracious reader, he read everything from the bits of paper to big volume books,” the mother added.
Thwaha has argued that mere possession of Maoist literature is not a criminal offence.
In his plea before the Supreme Court, Thwaha further repeated this and said, “Simple ownership of reports of prohibited associations alongside books of current political and social issues, to most, is only indicative of a learning process from in the side of the candidate, particularly since he was a journalism student.”
Jameela told Maktoob that “Initially CPI(M) had involved in the case but later on when the case was handed over to NIA, they were slowly fading away from the scene and now I have no hope they will be helping us or being part of the case. We feel like we are betrayed.”
Kerala left government had come under heavy criticism when the Kerala police booked the case under draconian UAPA. Even Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan defended the arrests, stating that the two were not CPI(M) cadre but ‘Maoists.’ Allan and Thwaha, who were both members of the CPI(M), were ousted from the party in February after they were arrested.
“I don’t ask him what is happening in Jail, I ask only how is he doing and is he eating,” she said in pain, the basic and mandatory information a mother always wants to know.
Thwaha Fasal’s family is waiting hopefully for the next trail of the case.
