Amal Thomas vs State Of Kerala

Ziyad Rahman A.A, J

The petitioner is the 23rd accused in Crime No.36/2021 of Excise Range Office, Ernakulam which was registered for the offences punishable under Sections 22(c), 25 & 29 of NDPS Act.

The prosecution case is that, on 19.08.2021 at about 1.40 a.m., when the Excise Enforcement and Anti Narcotic Special Squad, Ernakulam, conducted a search at Marhaba Apartment, Vazhakala at Ernakulam, they could recover 83.896 grams of MDMA kept for sale in the apartment. During the search, they arrested accused No.1 to 5. The crime was registered in such circumstances. During course of investigation it was revealed that the petitioner was also involved and accordingly he was implicated along with some other accused persons. As part of the investigation the petitioner was arrested on 20.02.2023. Since then he has been under judicial detention. Even though he has approached this Court on an earlier occasion seeking regular bail, the same was dismissed as per Annexure VIII order dated 07.07.2023 in B.A. No.5000/2023. This application for regular bail is submitted in such circumstances pointing out that, some of the other accused persons were already granted bail by this Court.

Heard Sri.Francis Assisi, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri.Sanal P. Raj, learned Public Prosecutor for the State.

I have carefully gone through the records. It is true that there are certain allegations against the petitioner and this Court has already dismissed the earlier application submitted by him. However, it is seen from the records that, this Court has already granted bail to 10 of the accused persons namely, A7, A9, A10, A11, A13, A14, A15, A18, A20 and A21 and the orders passed in their cases were already on record. It is also evident from the records that, the allegations raised against the petitioner are similar to that of some of the said accused. When the accused persons against whom similar allegations are raised were granted bail by this Court as well as the Hon’ble Supreme Court, I deem it appropriate to extend the said benefit to the petitioner as well. While considering the prayer of the petitioner in this regard, I have also taken note of the fact that no criminal antecedents of the petitioner were brought to the notice of this Court even though an allegation was raised to the effect that the petitioner is indulged in the trade of drugs. In such circumstances, taking note of the period of incarceration the petitioner had already undergone and also the fact that some of the other accused were granted bail, I deem it appropriate to grant bail to the petitioner, for the sake of parity.

Accordingly, this application is allowed and the petitioner is directed to be released on bail subject to the following conditions:

i) The petitioner shall be released on bail on executing a bond for Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lakh only) with two solvent sureties each for the like sum to the satisfaction of the jurisdictional Court.

ii) The petitioner shall fully co-operate with the investigation.

iii) The petitioner shall appear before the Investigating Officer between 10.00 a.m and 11.00 a.m on every Wednesday until the filing of final report.

iv) The petitioner shall appear before the Investigating Officer as and when required.

v) The petitioner shall not commit any offence of similar nature while on bail.

vi) The petitioner shall not make any attempt to contact any of the prosecution witnesses, directly or through any other person, or any other way try to tamper with the evidence or influence any witnesses or other persons related to the investigation.

vii) The petitioner shall not leave India without the permission of the jurisdictional court.

viii) The petitioner shall surrender his passport before the Jurisdictional court and, in case he does not have a passport, an affidavit to that effect shall be filed.

In case of violation of any of the above conditions, the jurisdictional Court shall be empowered to consider the application for cancellation of bail, if any, and pass appropriate orders in accordance with the law.