Five suspected ISI operatives granted bail

SNS, Kurseong, 20 August 2013: All five persons arrested on charge of their connection with Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI, have obtained bail from ACJM Court in Kurseong. 

It is learnt that four of them had obtained bail yesterday while one more was given bail today. The advocate for the accused, Mr Bhaskar Das, said that four of them had been arrested and produced before the court on 20 May. 

"One more person had been arrested later", he said. Four of the accused having obtained bail yesterday are Magan Bahadur Singh, Dhan Kumar Pradhan, Gopal Khati and Messo Sauriya. Today one more accused, Mani Kumar Sonar was granted bail by the ACJM Court, Kurseong. 

The five accused had earlier been arrested by police on charges of being ISI modules and booked under Section 121/121A/123/124 of the IPC and 39 Official Secret Act. 

Surprisingly, police have failed to file charge-sheets on them despite having got 90 days. This failure on the part of police is being cited as the reason why the five accused have been granted bail despite the seriousness of the charges they were slapped with. 

According to the court sources, they might be released tomorrow from Darjeeling Jail after a few formalities are complied with.