Nishad Muhammed vs State Of Kerala

Raja Vijayaraghavan V, J

The above captioned application seeking regular bail has been filed under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (“Code†for short) by

the accused Nos.6 and 16 in Crime No.434 of 2021 of Cherthala Police Station registered under Sections 143, 147, 148, 120(b), 94(b), 341, 324, 326,

307 r/w Section 149 of the IPC and Section 27 of the Arms Act.

The prosecution allegation is that the applicants herein and the rest of the accused, being members of the SDPI, had political enmity towards their

opponent, Sri Nandu R. Krishna, who belonged to the BJP. On 21.02.2021 at about 9:00 PM, the accused are alleged to have formed themselves into

an unlawful assembly and in prosecution of the common object committed rioting armed with deadly weapons and wrongfully restrained the deceased

Nandu R Krishna, his friends Nandu K.S, and the defacto complainant. They are alleged to have attacked them with swords inflicting a fatal cut injury

on the head of the deceased Nandu R. Krishna and voluntarily caused grievous injury to his friend Nandu K.S.. The injury sustained by Sri Nandu R.

Krishna proved fatal and he later succumbed to the injuries.

Sri.E.A.Haris, the learned counsel appearing for the applicants submitted that they are innocent of the allegations. According to the learned counsel,

the informant and the deceased were the actual aggressors. He would further contend that in the earliest records, no overt acts whatsoever are

attributed to the petitioners herein. He would point out that the specific allegation of the prosecution is that A1 and A2 took out swords from a car and

handed it over to A3 and A4 and using those swords, A3 inflicted the allegedly fatal injury to the deceased while A4 inflicted the injury to Nandu K.S.,

who sustained a fracture to his left elbow. According to the learned counsel, the petitioners were arrested on 25.02.2021 and they have been in

custody since then. The investigation has progressed to the final stages and the petitioners being persons without criminal antecedents their further

detention in custody is clearly unwarranted, contends the learned counsel. He would then point out that by Annexure A5 order dated 27.05.2021 this

Court had granted bail to the 23rd accused, by A6 order this Court had granted bail to accused Nos.14 and 15 and by order in Bail Application

No.3673 of 2021, this Court had granted bail to accused Nos.5, 7, 8, 12 and 19. Reference is also made to the order in Bail Application No.4013 of

2021 by which some of the accused were granted bail. The learned counsel would urge that the fundamental postulate of criminal jurisprudence is the

presumption of innocence, meaning thereby that a person is believed to be innocent until found guilty. He would vehemently urge that any

imprisonment before conviction has a substantial punitive content and which has time and again been disapproved by this Court as well as the Apex

Court.

The learned Public Prosecutor has vehemently opposed the prayer and highlighted the grave nature of the allegations.

I have considered the submissions advanced and have perused the materials which are made available.

It appears that accused who face similar allegations as the petitioners have been granted bail by this Court by the orders referred to above. There is

no case for the prosecution that there is any reason to take a different stand in so far as the petitioners herein are concerned. The case records reveal

that the investigation has progressed to the end stages. Having considered all the relevant aspects, including the nature of accusations, the antecedents

of the petitioners, the stage of investigation, the reasonable possibility of securing their presence at the stage of trial, and other factors I am of the view

that the petitioners can now be enlarged on bail by imposing appropriate conditions.

In the result, this application will stand allowed, however, it shall be subject to the following conditions:

The applicants shall be released on bail on each of them executing a bond for Rs.1,00,000/-(Rupees One Lakh only) each with two solvent sureties each for the like

sum to the satisfaction of the court having jurisdiction.

The applicants shall appear before the Investigating Officer between 9 a.m. and 12 a.m. on every Saturday for a period of three months or until the filing of the final

report whichever is earlier.

The applicants shall not intimidate or attempt to influence the witnesses; nor shall they tamper with the evidence.

They shall not commit any offence while on bail.

They shall not leave the State of Kerala without the permission of Court having jurisdiction

In case of violation of any of the above conditions, the jurisdictional Court shall be empowered to consider the application for cancellation, if any, and

pass appropriate orders in accordance with the law.