A judicial decision on continuing the jail term of former Naxalite leader GROW Vasu, who declined to go on bail a fortnight ago, is likely to be taken on Friday.
Mr. Vasu, who was arrested on charges of unlawful assembly and assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty, had baffled authorities by refusing to go on self-bond and choosing jail as a mode of protest. He was booked for taking out an unauthorised procession in front of the mortuary of the Kozhikode Medical College and Hospital against the alleged encounter killings of two Maoists in 2016.
The 93-year-old activist will be produced before the Kunnamangalam Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Kozhikode, on Friday.
According to judicial sources, the Magistrate can order his release if the court thinks that no case has been made out against him. If the court is convinced that Mr. Vasu can be proceeded against, charges will be framed and the trial will be scheduled. In such a situation, the accused will have to remain in prison till the trial is over, said the sources.
Meanwhile, a section of social activists had been mobilising public support for his release and demanded the State not to press the charges against him.
The State, according to a top law officer, will not oppose any step the court may initiate for releasing him as it is not inclined to jail the aged activist.
The counsel for the petitioner can request the court to invoke Section 95 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which deals with acts causing slight harm. The Section states that nothing is an offence if the act causes slight harm about which no person of ordinary sense and temper would complain, said legal sources.
The court can also exercise the option of giving him a pardon and release him out with a warning not to repeat the public nuisance he had caused, the sources added.
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