THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE CHEEKATI MANAVENDRANATH ROY
CRIMINAL PETITION No.1183 OF 2022
ORDER:-
This Criminal Petition under Section 438 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973, is filed to enlarge the petitioner on bail
in the event of his arrest.
The petitioner is A-4 in Crime No.17 of 2022 of II Town Police
Station, Kurnool District. A case under Section 302 r/w 34 IPC
was registered against the petitioner along with other accused.
Briefly stated, it is the case of the prosecution that on
13.01.2022
, certain individuals have attacked the deceased in this
case with deadly weapons like knife and caused injuries to him on
his chest, throat and other parts of the body and thereby murdered
him. It is stated that the investigation revealed that as per the
CCTV footages collected at the scene of offence that A-1 and A-2
have attacked the deceased and killed him. It is the further case of
the prosecution that the petitioner herein, who is A-4, got enmity
with the deceased on account of a land dispute between them and
the petitioner herein hatched up a conspiracy with A-1 to A-3 to
kill the deceased and that the petitioner has engaged the services
of A-1 to A-3 by paying money to them to do away with the life of
the deceased and accordingly in pursuance of the said conspiracy
hatched up by the petitioner herein that the deceased was
murdered in this case. Therefore, it is alleged that the petitioner is
the main person behind the conspiracy and the murder of the
deceased and he is liable for prosecution under Section 302 r/w 34
IPC.
2
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned
Additional Public Prosecutor for the State.
Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the
name of the petitioner is not mentioned in the F.I.R and he is only
shown as accused in this case on the basis of the alleged
disclosure statements given by A-1 to A-3 after their arrest and as
such the petitioner is innocent. He would further submit that A-1
to A-3 were enlarged on bail after their arrest and thereby prayed
for grant of anticipatory bail to the petitioner.
Learned Additional Public Prosecutor vehemently opposed
the Criminal Petition. He would submit that the main person
behind the conspiracy that was hatched up and who is responsible
for murder of the deceased is the petitioner herein, who is A-4. He
would submit that the petitioner herein has engaged the services of
A-1 to A-3 by paying money to them to kill the deceased. The said
fact came to light during the course of investigation. Therefore, he
would submit that the mere fact that the name of the petitioner
was not mentioned in the F.I.R at the initial stage by itself is not a
valid ground to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner and that
too in a case relating to commission of a grave offence like murder.
He further submits that when the petitioner approached the
Session Court seeking anticipatory bail that the same is dismissed
by the learned Sessions Judge by an order dated 11.02.2022.
As can be seen from the material available on record, it is a
case pertaining to brutal murder of the deceased that was
committed on 13.01.2022. The material on record further discloses
that A-1 to A-3 have committed the said murder of the deceased.
The CCTV footage collected at the scene of offence also reveals that 3
A-1 and A-2 have committed the said murder of the deceased. After
their arrest, they disclosed that the petitioner herein is the man
behind the conspiracy who engaged their services to commit
murder of the deceased in view of the dispute relating to a real
estate business pertaining to a land issue. Therefore, when the
petitioner is the main person behind the conspiracy and as he is
responsible for commission of the murder of the deceased by
engaging the services of the other accused, as rightly held by
learned Sessions Judge, this is not a fit case for grant of
anticipatory bail. Therefore, having regard to the gravity of the
offence and as the case pertains to offence of murder punishable
under Section 302 IPC, this Court is not inclined to grant any
anticipatory bail to the petitioner herein.
The judgment relied on by the learned counsel for the
petitioner in the case of Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia vs State Of
Punjab1 is not applicable to the present facts of the case. In the
instant case, prima facie there is material to show the involvement
of the petitioner in hatching up conspiracy to commit murder of
the deceased by engaging the services of A-1 to A-3 by paying
money to them. Therefore, the aforesaid judgment relied on by
learned counsel for the petitioner is of no avail to the case of the
petitioner.
Therefore, the Criminal Petition is dismissed.
________________________________________________ JUSTICE CHEEKATI MANAVENDRANATH ROY
Date: 03-03-2022 AKN
1 1980 AIR 1632 = 1980 SCR (3) 383 4
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE CHEEKATI MANAVENDRANATH ROY
CRIMINAL PETITION No.1183 OF 2022
Date: 03-03-2022
AKN
