Kochi, Mar 15 (IANS): Senior CPI-M leader and Kannur District Secretary P. Jayarajan got a jolt on Thursday when the Kerala High Court said that the CBI charges against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act will stay.

Jayarajan is presently out on bail in the murder of RSS activist Kathirur Manoj.

The Kerala government had filed the appeal that the CBI charges under the UAPA would not hold good and asked for them to be dropped.

The High Court on Thursday slammed the state for filing the petition, as it was to help the accused.

Forty two-year-old Manoj was attacked by a seven-member gang on September 1, 2014, in Kathirur near Kannur. The assailants first threw a bomb on his vehicle and later hacked him to death.

The first name in the list of accused in the case is a very close aide of Jayarajan, who was arrested in 2016 by the CBI.

Jayarajan was in jail for over three weeks, before he secured bail.

Manoj was one of those accused of trying to kill Jayarajan in 1999.

A former legislator of the CPI-M, 66-year-old Jayarajan is currently rated as one of the most popular leaders in Kannur district.