SC Directs Murder Accused To Surrender Whose Wife Was Suffering From Brain Haemorrhage, Remits Matter For Deciding Bail

The Supreme Court in a murder case has allowed the appeals directing the accused to surrender whose wife was suffering from brain haemorrhage, and remitted the matter to the High Court for deciding the bail applications afresh.

The two-Judge Bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said, “When the accused are chargesheeted after the investigation, the High Court ought to have taken note of and/or considered the material collected during the investigation even to find out whether there is any material collected during the investigation involving the accused for the serious offence under Section 302 of IPC and therefore, whether it is a fit case to enlarge the accused on bail or not.”

The Bench noted that the order passed by the High Court is unsustainable and the same deserves to be quashed and set aside.

Advocate Aakarsh Kamra appeared for the appellant while Advocates Amit Pai and Namit Saxena appeared for the respondents.

In this case, being aggrieved with the order passed by the Rajasthan High Court by which it directed to enlarge the accused on bail in connection with the FIR for the offences under Sections 302, 307, 201, 120¬B of the IPC, the complainant had preferred the appeals. The accused was charge-sheeted after investigation for the said offences.

Despite the above and without taking into consideration any of the material forming part of the chargesheet and without even considering the seriousness of the offences alleged; material collected during the investigation, the High Court by a non-speaking order directed to release the accused on bail observing that there is a possibility that trial may take a long time to conclude.

The Supreme Court in view of the facts and circumstances of the case asserted, “Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the original accused has submitted that wife of accused – Sunil Gupta is suffering from brain haemorrhage. It will be open for the accused to prayer for interim bail and/or seek bail on that ground which may be considered by the High Court in accordance with law and on its own merits.”

The Court directed the accused to surrender before the concerned Court/Jail authority within a period of 10 days and further directed the High Court to decide and dispose of the bail application(s) afresh in accordance with law and on its own merits.

“After surrender, the High Court on remand to decide and dispose of the bail application(s) as observed hereinabove at the earliest”, said the Court.

Accordingly, the Court allowed the appeals and remitted the matter to the High Court.

Cause Title- Rahul Gupta v. State of Rajasthan & Anr.

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