Background

26-year-old Vijith Vijayan hails from Wayanad district of Kerala. He is a B.Tech graduate who had been working in a tuition centre at Cherukulathoor, Kozhikode.

Charges and Allegations

Vijith, resident of Wayanad, was charged under 120B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) besides sections 13, 38 and 39 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) based on a case registered in Pantheerankavu Police Station as Crime no. 507/2019 on 1st November 2019. He was alleged to have provided food, medicine, dress etc. to underground members of CPI (Maoist) and that he himself was part of the publications division of the organisation. National Intelligence Agency (NIA) had re-registered the case as RC-04/2019/NIA/KOC on 18th December 2019 and arrested him on 21st January 2021.

Current Status

He has been denied bail by the Kerala High Court on 1 June 2022. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan called Vijith a ‘Maoist’ even before the investigations were over.