Shabeer vs State Of Kerala

Ziyad Rahman A.A., J

This is an application filed u/s 439 of the Code of the Criminal Procedure seeking regular bail.

The petitioner is the 3rd accused in Crime No.56 of 2023 of Kozhikode Town Police Station, Kozhikode, which was registered for the offences punishable under Sections 22(c) and 20(b)(ii)(A) of the NDPS Act. The prosecution case is that on 19.01.2023 the petitioner along with the other persons were found in possession of 84.290 grams of MDMA and 18.070 grams of Hashish near the Government Model Higher Secondary School, Kozhikode. The petitioner and the other accused were arrested on the same day and the contraband articles were seized. Since then, he has been under judicial detention. Even though the petitioner earlier approached this Court seeking bail, same was dismissed as per Annexure-3 order. This is the second application submitted by him.

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

The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that, even though, a final report was submitted by the Police within the statutory period of 180 days, the jurisdictional court noted certain fundamental mistakes therein and therefore, it was returned for correcting the same. Thereafter, the final report is not resubmitted. Therefore, the period of 180 days is already over. The learned counsel for the petitioner also brought to the notice of this Court Annexure-4 order passed by this Court in the bail application submitted by accused Nos.1 and 2. As per the said order, this Court granted bail to the said accused persons under Section 167(2) of the Cr.P.C., on the ground that no final report has been submitted within the statutory period. The persons who were released as per Annexure-4 order also arrested on the same day along with the petitioner and the allegations against them are similar in nature. In such circumstances, I am of the view that the petitioner is also to be granted bail as there is no final report submitted in time. Accordingly, this application is allowed and the petitioner is directed to be released with 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 cooperate with the investigation.

(iii) The petitioner shall appear before the investigating officer between 10.00 a.m and 11.00 a.m on every Monday until the filing of final report.

(iv) The petitioner shall also 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 in 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 trial Court.

(viii) The petitioner shall surrender his passport before the investigating officer, who shall produce the same before the jurisdictional court and if the petitioner is not having a valid passport, file an affidavit to that effect.

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.