Prolonged pre-trial detention violates the right to life and liberty; bail may be granted even for serious charges if trial delay is substantial.

JUDGMENT :

Raja Vijayaraghavan, J.

The above captioned Criminal Appeal is preferred by the 2nd accused in S.C.No.3/2022/NIA challenging the order dated 20.3.2025 in Crl. M.P.No.20/2025 on the file of the Special Court for Trial of NIA cases, as per which the application for regular bail preferred by the appellant was dismissed.

2. Gist of the prosecution allegation

2.1. Credible information was allegedly received by the Central Government concerning the involvement of a) Sanjay Deepak Rao @ Vikas, a Central Committee Member of the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee (WGSZC) of the proscribed terrorist organization CPI (Maoist); b) Pinaka Pani @ Pani and Varalakshmi, members of the Revolutionary Writers Association, a frontal organization of CPI (Maoist) operating in Andhra Pradesh; c) Sreekanth of Wayanad; and d) Anjayanelu @ Anji @ Sudhakar of Andhra Pradesh, along with others were making efforts to radicalise Chaithanya @ Surya with a view to recruit him into the the proscribed terrorist organization CPI(Maoist) and to provide training with the objective to carry out acts so as to threaten the security, unity, integrity, and sovereignty of the Union of India.

2.2. Considering the grave nature of the offence and the opinion that a scheduled offence under the National Investigation Agency Act (hereinafter referred to as ‘NIA Act’) had been committed, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India ordered the registration of a Crime by the NIA and consequently RC01/2022/NIA/KOC was registered under Sections 18, 18A, 18B, 20, 38 & 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 & Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code. The accused in the above crime registered by the NIA on 03.02.2022 are Sanjay Deepak Rao (A-1), Pinakapani (A-2), Varalakshmi (A-3), Sreekanth (A-4), Chaithanya (A-5) and Anjayanelu (A-6).

2.3. On completion of the investigation, a report was laid initially on 3.9.2022 before the NIA Special Court, arraying Chaithanya @ Surya (A-5) and Anjayanelu @ Sudhakar @ Anji (A-6) as the accused and the same was taken on file on 22.9.2022.

2.4. Investigation was carried out against the rest of the accused. A Supplementary Final Report was submitted arraying Sanjay Deepak Rao (A-1) on 05.07.2024.

2.5. In the course of the further investigation, it was revealed that in addition to the accused already arrayed, certain others were also involved. The NIA, based on investigation, concluded that (i) Akki Raju Hargopal (ii) Bussireddy Kondareddy, (iii) BG Krishnamurthy and (iv) R. Ragaveendran played a pivotal role in the conspiracy to recruit Chaithanya (A-5) and Anjayanelu (A-6) to the Western Ghats Special Zone Committee of the proscribed terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist). Accordingly, the original status of the accused was rearranged as Akki Raju Hargopal (A-1), Sanjay Deepak Rao (A-2), Pinakapani (A-3), Varalakshmi (A-4), Bussireddy Kondareddy (A-5), R. Ragaveendran (A-6), BG Krishnamurthy (A-7), Sreekanth (A-8) Chaithanya (A-9) and Anjayanelu (A-10).

3. The Charge against the appellant .

3.1. As per the Charge, the specific allegation is that the appellant Velagutra Anjayanelu @ V Anjineyulu Velugutra @ Anjaneyalu @ Sudhakar @ Anji (A-6) became an active member of CPI (Maoist) through its frontal organization PKS (Prakuthiseela Karmika Samakya) of Andhra Pradesh and attended various classes and meetings of frontal organizations of the proscribed terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist) conducted by Pinakapani (A-2) and Varalakshmi (A-3) during 2017-2