Kochi, Sep 9 (IANS): Almost 10 months after they were arrested by a special Kerala Police team and later taken into custody by the NIA, two CPI-M affiliated youths from Kozhikode got bail with strict conditions from a NIA court on Wednesday.

The two students of law and journalism, Allen Shuaib and Thaha Fazil, both CPM workers, were arrested in November from their hometown Kozhikode, after the police recovered Maoist leaflets that condemned the Central government's action in Jammu & Kashmir.

The NIA court has asked the two to surrender their passports and appear before the local police once a week.

The Kerala Police had charged these youths under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and later the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case.

A furore had broken out after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan termed the two youths as Maoists, while the Kozhikode district CPI-M denied this. After Vijayan stood his ground, it changed its stand.

This issue also reverberated in the Kerala Assembly, with the Congress opposition taking on Vijayan over this.