Kerala HC Advocate Alleged To Be PFI Murder Squad Trainer Among Those Granted Bail By High Court

The Kerala High Court has granted bail to Advocate Mohammed Mubarak, the 15th accused in the Popular Front of India larger conspiracy case. He was arrested in December 2022, pursuant to raids conducted by the NIA in Kerala after the ban of the Popular Front of India.

It is the NIA's case against Mubarak that he imparted weapons training to the murder squad of the PFI. The PFI is accused of committing many murders in the state, including that of BJP leader and Advocate, Ranjith Sreenivasan.

The Bench of Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Syam Kumar VM granted bail to 17 accused in the cases involving the murder of an RSS leader Srinivasan in Palakkad in April, 2022 and in the larger conspiracy case against the PFI. The Court refused bail to 9 accused.

The Court held that while examining evidence against the accused under Section 43D of the UAPA, the Court has also to guard itself against any confirmation bias that might creep in based on "ideological biases and false narratives prevalent in society".

As per information available on the website of the Kerala High Court, Advocate Muhammed Mubarak was enrolled in the year 2018 and has entered appearance in around 30 cases in the High Court.

Mubarak is accused of committing offences punishable under Sections 120B & 153A of IPC and Sections 13, 18, 18A, 18B, 20 & 23 of UAPA and Section 25(1)(a) of the Arms Act. It is from his mobile phone that the NIA recovered "India 2047" PFI's vision document to establish Islamic Rule in India.

"The accused are the part of larger conspiracy hatched by PFI, its leaders and cadres and committed terrorist act of murder of Sreenivasan on 16.04.2022 as a part of larger conspiracy hatched by PFI and its office bearers and cadres to enact their "India 2047" agenda of establishing Islamic Rule in India", the NIA had told the High Court.

The NIA had objected to his bail plea contending that, "He is Arms trainer of PFI. He imparted Arms and Physical training to the cadres of PFI at Periyar Valley Campus for committing terrorist acts. The PFI cadres to whom Arms and Physical training were imparted by the appellant and the leaders who conducted and supervised the arms training of appellant are accused in this case. He possessed weapons for imparting the arms training to the cadres of PF1 for committing terrorist acts".

The NIA had recovered arms in a raid at his residence. "In furtherance to the conspiracy, he knowingly and intentionally became a member of terrorist gang, caused to recruit the cadres of PFI into the terrorist gang, organised and Imparted Arms and Physical training to the cadres of PFI at Periyar Valley Campus on various occasions as a preparation for committing terrorist acts, possessed sharp edged arms including swords, sickle and axe and used the same for imparting the arms training to the cadres of PFI for committing terrorist acts", the NIA contended.

The NIA recovered a voice clip from Mubarak's phone. However, the High Court held, "As for the voice clip recovered from the mobile phone of A15 Mohammed Mubarak, there is nothing to suggest that the voice in the clip is that of A15. Even the prosecution does not have a case that the voice is that of A15. There is also no scientific evidence linking the voice with that of any of the other accused".

With respect to "India 2047" recovered from Mubarak, the Court held, "Doc.No.1376 is a printed document titled “India 2047 – Towards Rule of Islam in India” and is stated to be an “Internal document; Not for circulation”. It is in the nature of a vision statement that deals with the present state of the Muslim community in India, projects a vision for the year 2047 that sees the establishment of an Islamic government in India, and gives a narration of the means, mostly covert and violent, by which its author, apparently a member/supporter of the PFI, seeks to attain his or the organisation’s objective. There is no authorship attributed to anyone in the document. However, the prosecution appears to proceed on the assumption that all of the accused herein have subscribed to the views contained therein".

Ultimately, for granting bail to the 17 accused, including Mubarak, the Court observed, "Save for the above mentioned nine appellants/accused, there exists no reasonable ground to believe that the accusations against any of the other appellants, are prima facie true".

Cause Title: Asharaf @ Asharaf Moulavi & Ors. v. Union of India & Anr. [Neutral Citation:2024:KER:45108]