Kalpetta, Saturday 04 July 2009: Sulthan Bathery First Class Judicial Magistrate M. Thushar on Friday granted bail to four CPM leaders and one Congress(S) leader who were accused in the case of alleged abduction of V.N. Saseendran, vice-president of the Poothadi grama panchayat in the district.

The bail for P.S. Janardhanan, CPM district secretariat member; T.B. Suresh, CPM Pulpally area committee secretary; A.V. Jayan, T.R. Ravi, Pulpally area committee members, and P.K. Babu, State secretary of the Congress(S) was granted as per the CRPC section 167 (2) (in first class offences, if the charge sheets have not been filed within 60 days, the accused are entitled to bail) on condition that they should appear before the investigating officer on Tuesdays and Saturdays until further orders.

Saseendran was allegedly abducted by a three-member gang from the panchayat office on April 20, a few days before the LDF-ruled Poothadi grama panchayat was to take up a non-confidence motion against the president.

Saseendran had joined the Congress just before the incident. But the motion was adjourned for lack of quorum when it was taken up for discussion on April 27. On the same day at 7 p.m., the abductors released him at Koduvally town in Kozhikode district. On April 28, he appeared before the High Court.

The accused were arrested on May 2 under IPC section 365 (kidnapping), 120-B (criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) and 368 (secret confinement), 345 (keeping any person in wrongful confinement knowing that a writ has been issued for his liberation) of the Indian Penal Code. They had been in judicial custody at the Vythiri sub-jail since May 2.