AIADMK leader and former Minister D Jayakumar was on Thursday granted conditional bail by the Madras High Court in the first case registered against him on the charge of attacking and parading shirtless, a DMK worker at a polling booth here on February 19 during the urban local body elections. Justice A D Jagadish Chandra, who granted the relief, said that the petitioner (Jayakumar) shall reside in Tiruchirappalli for two weeks and report to the Cantonment police on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Earlier, the judge was told by the prosecution that Jayakumar may be granted bail with stringent conditions. The counsel told the judge that the State does not have any objection to the grant of the relief. An affidavit to the effect that he would not indulge in any such activity in the future, may also be extracted from him, the counsel added.

After recording his appreciation for the gesture of the State and recording the statement, the judge granted the relief to Jayakumar. Earlier, representing the former Minister, senior advocates Sanjay R Hegde and A Natarajan argued Jayakumar had only forced Naresh Kumar, the DMK cadre, to remove his shirt, as he was a hard core criminal facing umpteen number of criminal cases. There was every chance of him carrying a knife hidden in his shirt, they claimed. Jayakumar, in fact, had prevented Naresh from being beaten up by other people. On the other hand, the police arrested him (Jayakumar) by foisting false charges, the senior counsel added.

The duo also pointed out to the judge that the FIR was registered against Jayakumar for bailable offences only. But, Sec. 307 of the IPC (attempt to murder) was included at a later stage. This was done only to thwart him from getting any relief from the lower courts and to take political vengeance, Natarajan and Hegde added. Earlier, he was granted bail in connection with disobeying a provision in Chennai City Police Act.

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