The Kerala High Court has granted bail to Liviya Jose of Kalady, who had been arraigned as the second accused in the case in which she was charged with conspiring with another person to falsely implicate Chalakudy native Sheela Sunny in a narcotic drug case.The case was registered by the Excise Range Office, Chalakudy. It pertains to the duo allegedly conspiring and placing stamps that looked like LSD stamps in Ms. Sunny’s scooter, following which false information was given to Excise personnel who detected it and charged a case against Ms. Sunny. On chemical analysis, it was found that the stamps were not of any prohibited narcotic drug. But by that time Ms. Sunny had undergone 72 days in custody. Ms. Jose was arrested in June and has been in custody since then.Ms. Jose’s counsel claimed before the court that the grounds for the arrest were not communicated to her or her relatives at the time of the arrest. Moreover, the stamps were not of any narcotic drugs.Rebutting this, the public prosecutor said that the grounds of arrest had been communicated to her at the time of the arrest in June.Granting bail to her, a Bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas said that the 21-year-old had already undergone two months in custody. Although the allegations against her are very serious, the first accused had already been released on bail on finding that the grounds for arrest were not communicated to him as per law.The court rapped Excise personnel and said they had arrested Ms. Sunny and arraigned her as an accused, without conducting any independent evaluation or appraisal about the seized material.Published - August 26, 2025 01:21 am IST