Date:27/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/27/stories/2007072752690600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Three Tamil ‘separatists’ get bail

Staff Reporter

The accused were arrested on charges of waging a war against the State
They sought bail on the grounds that their associates were given bail by Supreme Court

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday granted bail to three persons accused by the Bangalore police of being Tamil separatists and also involved in a criminal conspiracy to create unrest in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The three accused — D. Kumar, Bodanda Ravi and Srinivasan — all had sought bail, saying that while several of their associates had been granted bail by the Supreme Court, they are still languishing in the Central Jail in Bangalore.

Kumar and several others had been arrested by the Fraser Town police on charges of secession and waging war against the State. Nedunchezhian and 11 others were charged sheeted in 2003 by the police on charges of criminal conspiracy. Prof. Nedunchezhian had been granted bail.

Kumar who is the fourth accused, Ravi the sixth accused and Srinivasan the fourth accused had moved the High Court for bail. Opposing their bail plea, the State Public Prosecutor (SPP), S. Dore Raju, submitted that the accused had hatched a conspiracy between 1996 and 2002 to disturb peace in Karnataka and to create a separate Tamil nation. Some of the accused, he said, had even obtained military training from the extremists in Sri Lanka. The SPP submitted that the conspiracy came to light after Vijay Murthy alias Viji (now dead) and Shiva Kumar alias Shiva, were arrested by a police patrol near the Banaswadi railway station on November 11, 2002. The police had seized aluminium pipe bombs and hand grenades from them.

The accused had then joined hands in starting the “Tamiliar Peravai” movement.

Some of the members of the Peravai, he said, had undergone military training in Sri Lanka and others had attained expertise in procuring explosives.

Mr. Dore Raju said that the activists had met several times in Trichy and Bangalore between 1998 and 2002 and planned to commit acts of sabotage and disturb peace in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to achieve the goal of a separate Tamil homeland, comprising parts of both the States. The activists had also planned to provide physical and moral support to the LTTE chief, Prabakaran.

He said several of the accused in the Fraser Town case had been charged under Sections 120 (B), 121, 121 A, 122, 123, 124 A, 153 A, 153 B of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Explosives Act (1908) 3,4, 5, 6 read with 9B (1984) Arms Act.

Justice H. Billappa took note of the Supreme Court ruling granting bail to several other accused and granted bail to Kumar, Ravi and Srinivasan.