Allahabad High Court
Devendra vs State Of U.P. on 20 July, 2023
Bench: Ajay Bhanot
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Neutral Citation No. - 2023:AHC:144962
Court No. - 66
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 29855 of 2021
Applicant :- Devendra
Opposite Party :- State of U.P.
Counsel for Applicant :- Ranjeet Asthana,Mohammad Zakir
Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.,Rajnikant Pandey
Hon'ble Ajay Bhanot,J.
This is a third bail application.
By means of the bail application the applicant has prayed to be enlarged on bail in Case Crime No.41 of 2014 at Police Station-Dankaur, District-Gautam Budh Nagar under Sections 364, 302, 201 IPC. The applicant is in jail since 05.02.2014.
The second bail application of the applicant was rejected by this Court on 17.10.2019.
The following arguments made by Shri Ranjeet Asthana, learned counsel on behalf of the applicant, which could not be satisfactorily refuted by Shri Chandan Agrawal, learned AGA for the State from the record, entitle the applicant for grant of interim bail:
1. The applicant is a law abiding citizen who cooperated with the police investigations and had joined the trial.
2. The trial is moving at a snail's pace and shows no signs of an early conclusion. The applicant is not responsible for the delay in the trial proceedings.
3. Inordinate delay in concluding trial has lead to an indefinite detention of the applicant without there being any credible evidence to implicate him in the offence. Right of the applicant to a speedy trial has been violated.
4. The applicant does not have any criminal history apart from this case.
5. The applicant is not a flight risk. The applicant being a law abiding citizen has always cooperated with the investigation and undertakes to cooperate with the court proceedings. There is no possibility of his influencing witnesses, tampering with the evidence or reoffending.
In this wake, without expressing any opinion on merits of the case, I am of the view that the applicant is entitled to be enlarged on interim bail.
Let the applicant-Devendra be released on interim bail in the aforesaid case crime number, on furnishing a personal bond and two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court below. The following conditions be imposed in the interest of justice:-
(i) The applicant will not tamper with the evidence or influence any witness during the trial.
(ii) The applicant will appear before the trial court on the date fixed, unless personal presence is exempted.
Before parting this Court would like to address an issue which arisen squarely in this case. The status report sent by the trial court does not disclose any reasonable time frame in which the trial shall conclude.
The learned trial court also records that coercive measures have already been issued against a number of witnesses for more than one year. However, the said processes have not been executed by the police authorities. This Court is finding that in a number of cases the failure of the police authorities to serve the summons issued by the Court or implement the coercive measures taken out by the Court is a major cause for delay in trials.
Similar issues have already been raised before this Court in various bail applications. Connect with Criminal Misc. Bail Application No. 27375 of 2023 (Mandan Lal Harijan Vs. State of U.P.), Criminal Misc. Bail Application No.29718 of 2023 (Nasir Alam v. State of U.P.), Criminal Misc. Bail Application No.20644 of 2023 (Sunil Nishad v. State of U.P.) and Criminal Misc. Bail Application No.16871 of 2023 (Bhanwar Singh @ Karamvir v. State of U.P.).
Judgment reserved on the issue of responsibility of police authorities to serve summons and execute coercive measures taken out by the Court in a timely manner.
Order Date :- 20.7.2023
Vandit
