NEW DELHI: At a time when home minister Amit Shah has vowed to eradicate Left-wing extremism by March-end, Supreme Court on Tuesday said success against Naxalites could not be based on arrests alone and there must be adequate courts and infrastructure for speedy trial of the arrested ultras.One Kailash Ramchandani was arrested in June 2019 for being the person who signalled Naxalites to trigger an IED blast that killed 15 police personnel at Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. He was also accused of supplying material used in IED and walkie talkies to the extremists through a small shop used as a front.
Senior advocate Trideep Pais told SC there were scores of cases pending before the same special judge where Ramchandani’s case was being heard and the prosecution had listed 146 witnesses of which only one has been examined in the last three months. Pais said the accused had no criminal antecedents and pleaded for bail, saying he had been in custody for six-and-a-half years.Additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati told a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi the blast was triggered on the signal given by the accused and his hands were red with the blood of 15 police personnel.The bench said, “Your success story against Left-wing extremism cannot be based on arrests alone. There must be speedy trial, which is possible only when govt sets up exclusive special courts to try cases of this nature. Since there are many cases pending before the same trial judge and prosecution has cited many witnesses, the trial is not going to be concluded in the near future.”But the bench was cautious in granting only interim bail to the accused with the condition that he would be under constant watch of police. “If he attempts to get in touch with his associates among Naxalites, the interim bail would be liable to be cancelled,” it said and asked him to report to the police station near his home once a week.
