The Delhi High Court has granted bail to two persons charged with murder and rioting during the Delhi violence of February 2020, while casting doubt on the witness, who the petitioners claimed to be a planted witness.
The bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait clubbed both bail applications as they were pertiaing to the same FIR where the applicants, Pradeep Rai and Aman Kashyap have been charged for murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, theft, mischief and conspiracy. The counsel for the petitioner submitted that the eye witness in this FIR, Shashi Kant is also an eye witness in few other FIRs registered at Dayalpur police station for incidents that took place on February 25. However, these other FIRs were of incidents which took place in Gali no. 10 and the incident in the present FIR occurred in Gali no. 3, which is about 500-700 metres away. It was thus submitted that he seemed to be a planted witness.
At the previous hearing, the court had directed the State to verify how Shashi Kant had witnessed the incident which took place in Gali No. 10 and Gali No.3. The State responded stating that the distance between Gali No.10 and Gali No.3 is about 350 meters.
The court observed that the witness who is a resident of gali no. 10 might have witnessed the incident of Gali no. 10, but casted doubt on how he could see the present incident, which has taken place in Gali No.3. The court stated that the veracity of the allegations will be tested at trial but since the petitioners have been in custody since April 2020 and the trial will take substantial time, they deserve bail.
Accordingly, the court granted bail to the petitioners on furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs.20,000 each with one surety in the like amount. The court imposed a condition that the petitioners shall not influence prosecution witnesses and stated that the trial court shall not get influenced by the observations made in this order.
The order may be read here:
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