Uttarakhand High Court
CRLA/365/2022 on 28 August, 2023
Office Notes,
reports, orders or
SL. proceedings or
Date COURT'S OR JUDGES'S ORDERS
No directions and
Registrar's order
with Signatures
CRLA No.416 of 2022
With
CRLA No.357 of 2022
CRLA No.365 of 2022
CRLA No.367 of 2022
CRLA No.368 of 2022
CRLA No.370 of 2022
Hon'ble Pankaj Purohit, J.
Mr. Tapan Singh and Mr. B.M. Pingal, learned
counsel for the appellants.
2. Mr. Pankaj Kumar Sharma, learned counsel for
the appellants, through video conferencing.
Bail Applications (IA No.2 of 2022, 1 of 2022, 1 of 2022, 1 of 2022, 1 of
2022 and 1 of 2022)
3. The appellants/applicants have been convicted by
reason of a judgment and order dated 08.08.2022 by Vth
Additional Sessions Judge, Dehradun in Sessions Trial
Nos. 77 of 2011 and 78 of 2011, under Section 395 IPC
and were awarded five years rigorous imprisonment with
a fine of Rs.10,000/- with default stipulation of three
months additional simple imprisonment; and under
Section 397 IPC and was awarded seven years rigorous
imprisonment with a fine of ₹20,000/- with default
stipulation of six months additional simple imprisonment
and appellant-Kaushal Rana was also convicted under
Section 25 of the Arms Act, 1959 and was sentenced two
years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹5,000/- with
default stipulation of one month additional simple
imprisonment.
4. Today, learned counsel for the appellants sought
bail of these appellants, in the aforesaid criminal appeals.
5. On the last date, while hearing the bail
applications of the appellants, learned counsel for the
State was directed to submit the criminal antecedents of
the appellants.
6. The learned A.G.A called for the criminal
antecedents of the appellants not only from the State of
Uttarakhand, but also from the adjoining States of
Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi as
well; today, on instruction it is accepted by him that all
the appellants have been implicated in a case of
Gangsters Act and there is no other criminal offence
recorded anywhere against the appellants. He fairly
submitted that the challan of the appellants in the
Gangsters Act is also with regard to the same incident
arising out of the same F.I.R which resulted into their
conviction impugned under these appeals.
7. Learned counsel for the appellants submit that
there is no legal evidence to nail the appellants with the
crime; no Test Identification Parade has ever been
conducted by the prosecution. Since the appellants are
residents of Muzaffarnagar, in that view of the matter, it
was imperative for the prosecution to conduct the Test
Identification Parade of the appellants to round them up,
with the alleged crime.
8. It is further submitted by learned counsel for the
appellants that the appellants are under incarceration
since the date of pronouncement of the judgment;
however, they were released on bail, during trial and
have never misused the bail granted to them.
9. It is also submitted by learned counsel for the
appellants that this is the only offence, in which, the
appellants have wrongly been implicated and they have
got no criminal antecedents.
10. Per-contra, learned counsel for the State submitted
that the appellants were rightly convicted; the articles
stolen from the complainant and their family members
were recovered at their pointing out and the same were
identified by the complainant. It is further submitted by
learned A.G.A, that it is wrong statement that no Test
Identification Parade was conducted, but in fact, the Test
Identification Parade was conducted and in that Parade
one appellant-Tiku @ Mohit was identified only.
11. This Court is of the opinion that the evidence
appearing on the record against the appellants appears to
be very shaky.
12. Having heard the rival contentions of the parties
and having gone through the record of the case and
considering the fact that since the appellants have already
been under incarceration for more than one year, this
Court thinks that the appellants should be released on
bail, during pendency of these appeals.
13. Accordingly bail applications of the appellants are
hereby allowed.
14. Let the appellants/applicants namely Pankaj
Panwar @ Monu, Monu Katariya @ Mumnendra,
Kaushal Rana, Tinku @ Mohit, Amit Chauhan, Kaushal
Rana be released on bail, on their executing personal
bonds and two local reliable sureties, by each one of
them, to the satisfaction of the Magistrate concerned.
15. List these appeals for final hearing in due course.
(Pankaj Purohit, J.)
28.08.2023
SK
