Kerala HC Overturns Convictions Of RDF Activists In Case Registered Against Them By NIA

Alappuzha District, September 25, 2024: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday set aside the verdict of the Ernakulam Special Court for NIA cases sentencing five activists of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) to three years imprisonment in a case relating to a meeting of persons alleged to be leading cadres of the Maoist party in Mavelikara.

The NIA case against the activists was that they had conducted a secret meeting of the RDF, purported to be a frontal organization of the CPI (Maoist), at a lodge in Mavelikara on December 29, 2012, with the intention of forming a student wing of the RDF in Kerala state.

The Bench acquitted the accused on the ground that the prosecution in the case had failed to establish that the RDF was a terrorist organization. The court pointed out that the RDF was not listed as a terrorist organization in the first schedule of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), though the CPI (Maoist) and its front organizations are currently banned by the Union government.

Those who were acquitted are first accused Rajesh Madhavan, second accused Gopal, third accused Devarajan, fourth accused Bahuleyan, and fifth accused Ajayakumar alias Ajayan alias Mannoor Ajayan.

Source : https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/hc-acquits-rdf-activists-convicted-in-a-case-registered-by-nia/article68682310.ece