The Allahabad High Court has granted Anticipatory Bail to the accused Adil till the conclusion of his trial. “Applicants’ prayer can be considered for grant of anticipatory bail till the conclusion of trial”, noted the court.
The Single-judge Bench of Justice Siddharth was hearing an anticipatory bail application filed by Adil (applicant), a law student at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), booked under section 307 (attempt to murder) and 504 (intentional insult to provoke and breach public peace) of the Indian Penal Code at Police Station Civil Lines, Aligarh.
The applicant’s counsel, Senior Advocate Nazrul Islam Jafri argued that he should be given the relief of anticipatory bail like he was granted earlier till the submission of police report (chargesheet) under Section 173(2) Code of Criminal Procedure.
He added that since the Investigating Officer had filed its chargesheet against Adil and the co-accused, before Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Aligarh and after cognisance of the same the applicant along with co-accused have been summoned by the court. The counsel then sought the extension of the anticipatory bail to the applicant till the conclusion of trial.
The Additional Government Advocate (AGA) for the State argued that once the anticipatory bail was granted to the applicant for a limited period and he availed the same, there is no occasion for granting him further anticipatory bail till the conclusion of trial.
He further contended that since the chargesheet had been submitted and cognizance had been taken thereof by the CJM, the applicant should apply for regular bail under Section 439 Cr.PC or challenge the charge sheet and the summoning order of the CJM.
Court’s observation
Justice Siddharth heard both parties and relied on the case of Sushila Aggarwal vs. State (NCT of Delhi) 2020 SCC Online SC 98 where the apex court held that “anticipatory bail need not be of limited duration invariably. In an appropriate case it can continue upto conclusion of trial.”
Therefore, the Allahabad High Court observed that “this court is of the view that power to grant anticipatory bail vested in the High Court does not come to an end after submission of charge sheet.” He added further,
“If the facts of the given case make the applicant entitled for grant of anticipatory bail, even after submission of charge sheet against him and cognizance of the same by the Court, the second anticipatory bail would be maintainable before the High Court even though the applicant was earlier granted anticipatory bail till the submission of charge sheet by the High Court.”
The court went through the facts of the case where an FIR was registered on February 28, 2019 against the applicant Adil for allegedly instigating one Nabel (co accused) to fire at the informant which he missed, resulting in no injuries.
The Bench noted that Adil belongs to a reputed family and his father is an Assistant Professor in Aligarh Muslim University. “Neither in the FIR nor in the statement of the witnesses recorded by the Investigating Officer any weapon has been assigned to him. He has been implicated only to spoil his life career. The applicant has no criminal history nor he has ever been implicated in any other case”, said the court.
Hence, based on the precedent set by the Supreme Court in Sushila Aggarwal, that held that bail can be granted to an accused till the conclusion of trial, the Allahabad High Court accepted the applicants’ prayer for grant of anticipatory bail till the conclusion of trial.
The order may be read here:
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