Salim Raj gets bail in land grab case
text_fields
Thiruvananthapuram: The CBI court on Tuesday granted bail to Salim Raj, the former gunman of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, and six others in connection with the Kadakampally land grab case.
CBI Judge R Raghu also granted bail to six others arrested along with Raj on June 3 in connection with the case related to alleged grabbing of 46.5 acres of land worth around Rs 400 crore at Kadakampally in the district.
The judge directed the accused not to enter Thiruvananthapuram district limit until further orders and present themselves at the CBI office at Kochi on all Saturdays and whenever the investigating officials demanded.
First accused C K Jayaram, second accused K H Abdul Majeed, who is also Salim Raj’s brother in-law, third accused A Nisar, tenth accused A M Abdul Ashraf, deputy tahasildar and 24th accused Vidyodhaya Kumar, and 28th accused SA Saleem were also granted bail by the court.
Talking to reporters, Salim Raj said he had no role in the land grab case.
The accused persons have been barred from entering Thiruvananthapuram district. The court also asked them not to threaten or canvass the witnesses. They should also present themselves at CBI Kochi office once in every week.
During the submission on Monday, the CBI requested the court not to give bail to the accused persons on account of the crimes they had committed. The prosecution further said that bail should not be granted as they were highly influential and it would adversely affect the investigation.
However, the defence lawyers reiterated that the accused persons had co-operated with the investigation thus far and hence they were entitled to get bail. The lawyer of Salim Raj told the court that the latter would appear before the court whenever the probe team or prosecution demanded.
