Kerala High Court Closes Pre-Arrest Bail Plea Moved By Swapna Suresh and Sarith

The Kerala High Court on Thursday closed the pre-arrest bail plea moved by Swapna Suresh and Sarith P.S in a case registered against Suresh for allegedly spreading false information against MLA K.T Jaleel, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the Government.

Justice Viju Abraham closed the plea after recording the Public Prosecutor's submission that the second petitioner (Sarith) was not even implicated in the crime and that an anticipatory bail plea was therefore not maintainable. The Judge also observed that the offences alleged in the FIR registered against Suresh under Section 153 (provocation with the intention to cause riot) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of  IPC were both bailable offences.

Advocate R. Krishna Raj appeared for the petitioners and argued that they were apprehending arrest because Sarith was taken into custody with no notice or authority the other day and questioned about the case despite him not being an accused in the case. 

However, the Public Prosecutor opposed the petition pointing out that the plea was filed merely to make some false information available to the public domain. He argued that no concrete facts were produced by the petitioners to apprehend arrest. It was also submitted that they should have moved the court against police harassment if they had such a case and that a plea for anticipatory bail was not the remedy for their grievances.

Further, it was pointed out with precedents that the first petitioner was only charged with bailable offences, and the second petitioner was not even arrayed as an accused in the case. On these grounds, they sought the dismissal of the anticipatory bail plea.

On Tuesday, Suresh had revealed to the press that several persons in the administrative higher-ups including the Chief Minister, his wife, his daughter, MLA K.T Jaleel and many others were involved in several anti-social and anti-national activities involving the Consulate while adding that she had deposed the same before the Magistrate.

Soon, KT Jaleel lodged a complaint alleging that Suresh conspired with some others after which she gave false statements before the Magistrate and spread false news to the media, thereby attempting to incite riots. As per this complaint, the police registered a crime against Suresh and she was booked under Sections 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC.

It is in this case that the petitioner had sought anticipatory bail. Although not an accused in the case, Sarith P.S also moved for pre-arrest bail apprehending arrest. The bail application had raised severe allegations against the Chief Minister as well.

[Corrigendum: When this story was first published it was incorrectly reported that the application for anticipatory bail filed by Swapna Suresh And Another was dismissed. But from the Order, it is clear that the bail application was not dismissed but it was closed. We regret the inadvertent error that occurred in this news report.]

Case Title: Swapna Prabha Suresh & Anr. v. Station House Officer & Anr.

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Ker) 270

Click Here To Read/Download The Order