IDUKKI: The court has granted bail to the main accused Nikhil Pailey for stabbing to death, Dheeraj, a SFI leader and a student of Idukki Engineering College. He was granted bail by the Idukki sessions court. Other seven accused were granted bail earlier.

Pailey, a youth congress activist stabbed Dheeraj to death on January 10. He is getting bail after 87 days of arrest. The police had filed the charge sheet on April 2. There are eight accused in the case and Pailey is the first accused. He has been slapped with charges of murder, murder attempt, destruction of evidence, provision of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Torture Act and unlawful association. The charge sheet has nearly 600 pages and there are 160 witnesses. Meantime, the charge sheet has stated that the knife used to stab him has not been found yet.

The police are concerned for not finding the knife. The accused had told the police that he threw the knife in the forest area in front of the Idukki Collectorate while escaping. Though a search was conducted along with Nikhil, they could not find the knife.