In a bail application under Sections 302 and 323 IPC, the High Court rejected the argument that hostile witnesses indicate prosecution weakness. The court held that other eyewitnesses remain to be examined regarding the specific allegation of firearm injury before bail can be granted.
Bail application dismissed; applicant not released.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
Court No. - 47
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 23986 of 2022
Applicant :- Rahul Opposite Party :- State of U.P. Counsel for Applicant :- Abhishek Kumar Srivastava Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Sameer Jain,J.
Heard Sri Abhishek Kumar Srivastava, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri Sheetal Prasad learned Brief Holder for the State-respondent and perused the record.
The present application has been moved by the applicant with a prayer to release the applicant on bail in case crime No. 610 of 2020, under Sections 302, 323, 504, 506, 336, 120B, 34 IPC, P.S. Khair, District Aligarh.
Learned counsel for the applicant submitted that informant of the case and other two eye witnesses, namely, Naresh and Bal Kishan, during trial, have turned hostile and they specifically stated in their statements before the trial court that they did not witness that the applicant caused injuries to the deceased. Learned counsel further submitted that admittedly, even as per the prosecution case mentioned in the case diary, applicant was found badly injured near the place of incident and therefore, from this angle, the entire prosecution version appears to be false and baseless as applicant was not in a position to cause any injury to the deceased as alleged against him. Learned counsel further submitted that applicant is having no criminal antecedent and he is in jail since 16.11.2020 and therefore, he may be released on bail.
Per contra, learned AGA submitted that there is specific allegation against the applicant in the FIR that he opened fire upon the father of informant from his gun and due to which he sustained firearm injury and died at spot and merely on the ground that some of the witnesses have turned hostile, applicant cannot be released on bail as some other witnesses of facts could not be examined by the trial court, till date and therefore, present bail application is liable to be dismissed.
I have heard learned counsel for both the parties and perused the record of the case.
FIR of the case shows that there is specific allegation against the applicant that he opened fire from his gun upon the deceased and due to that reason, deceased died at spot. After
investigation, charge sheet in the present case was submitted. Perusal of the charge sheet shows that total five witnesses of fact is mentioned in it and out of which only Sunil(informant), Naresh and Bal Kishan were examined before the trial court. Remaining eye witnesses of charge sheet, namely, Rahul and Monu, till date, could not be examined before the trial court. Therefore, applicant cannot be benefited on the ground that Sunil, Naresh and Bal Kishan have not supported the prosecution version when they examined before trial court. As there is specific allegation of causing firearm injury to the deceased by the applicant and out of total five prosecution witnesses of facts, only three prosecution witnesses, till date, could be examined and two eye witnesses still remain to examine, therefore, in my opinion the bail application of the applicant cannot be allowed on the ground that (informant)Sunil, Naresh and Bal Kishan did not support the prosecution version.
The present bail application is devoid of merit and is, accordingly, dismissed .
Order Date :- 21.6.2022 Ankita
Digitally signed by ANKITA SRIVASTAVA Date: 2022.06.22 19:33:42 IST Reason: Location: High Court of Judicature at Allahabad
1 issue framed by the court
Whether the applicant is entitled to bail given the hostility of certain witnesses and the firearm injury allegation against him.
Rahul
State of U.P.
Sameer Jain
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
