Mangaluru : The II Judicial Magistrate First Class Court on Monday granted bail to Manjunath Shenoy, alias Manju Neereshwalya, who was arrested on Sunday in connection with the murder of 51-year-old RTI activist Vinayak Baliga.

A police team arrested Manju Neereshwalya on the charge of harbouring Naresh Shenoy, an accused who has been absconding since the murder of Vinayak Baliga on March 21.

The police said that Manju was in constant touch with Naresh Shenoy and helped him escape from the law. Manju was charged under Sections 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 212 (Harbouring offender) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

On being produced before court here on Monday, Manju filed an application seeking bail.

The Magistrate granted him bail.

Meanwhile, the High Court of Karnataka has adjourned to Wednesday the hearing of Naresh Shenoy’s application seeking anticipatory bail.

Naresh Shenoy filed the application on May 4.

Vinayak Baliga was hacked to death near his house in Kodialbail on March 21. T

The police earlier arrested Vineet Poojary, Nishit Devadiga, Shiva, alias Shivaprasad, and Shailesh (40) in the murder case.