Supreme Court Cancels Bail Of Accused Involved In Murder Of Police Constable
|The Supreme Court cancelled the bail of the accused involved in the murder of a police constable.
The Court noted that their subsequent conduct of murdering the constable rendered them ineligible for bail, despite having served more than 10 years in prison.
The Court observed that crucial facts regarding the murder of the police constable were not presented before the High Court when it granted bail to the accused. The Court also noted that the accused had absconded after disposing of the constable's body, later being arrested by the Special Task Force in Maharashtra after resisting arrest and opening fire on the police, leading to a separate case.
Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sanjay Kumar observed, “Such facts have not been placed before the High Court. These were relevant facts which ought to have been placed before the High Court. The parity mentioned by the High Court in the impugned order relating to Adesh Kumar and Pramod Kashyap was clearly distinguishable not only with respect to their role in the case in hand but also, they were not involved in the murder of Ajay Kumar Police Constable.”
AOR Rishi Malhotra represented the appellant, while Sr. Advocates Manish Singhvi and Uday Gupta appeared for the respondents.
The complainant appealed to the Supreme Court, contesting the bail order issued by the Allahabad High Court, which had granted bail to three convicted individuals serving life imprisonment sentences under Sections 147, 148, 302, 149 and 120B of the IPC.
In a separate incident in 2013, the two convicts were implicated in the murder of a Police Constable. Despite being in judicial custody, they managed to escape and were later apprehended by the Special Task Force (STF) in Maharashtra.
The grant of bail was mainly contested by the complainant on the grounds that the convicts were “dreaded criminals” and after being released from jail, they would hatch another conspiracy to eliminate the complainant and his family members.
The Supreme Court considered the grounds on which the accused were granted bail by the Allahabad High Court: period of incarceration and two other co-accused had been granted bail.
“Accordingly, the appeal against Arvind Kumar is dismissed, and other two appeals i.e. against Chandra Kumar and Rishi Kumar are allowed. The impugned order of the High Court granting bail to Rishi Kumar and Chandra Kumar is set aside. They may surrender within two weeks failing which the High court will take appropriate steps for taking them into custody using coercive measures as are permissible under law,” the Court held.
Accordingly, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal against the two accused and dismissed the appeal against the other.
Cause Title: Jadunath Singh v. Arvind Kumar & Anr. (Neutral Citation: 2024 INSC 325)
Appearance:
Appellant: AOR Rishi Malhotra; Advocates Jaydip Pati and Utkarsh Singh
Respondents: Sr. Advocates Manish Singhvi and Uday Gupta; AOR D. K. Devesh and Hiren Dasan; Advocates Apurv Singhvi, Anuj Gupta, Shailesh Joshi, Shivani Lal, Gaurav Dave, M. K. Tripathi, Sanam Singh, Harish Dasan, Rajiv Ranjan, Rajeev Kumar Gupta and Yogamaya M. G.