Karnataka High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of H.B. Prabhakara Sastry, J. decided a criminal petition filed under Section 439 of CrPC, wherein the Court declined to enlarge the petitioner on bail on the ground that, inter alia, the petitioner suppressed facts while filing the present petition.
The petitioner was accused in a criminal case under Section 304 read with Section 34 of IPC. He was alleged to have assaulted one Umachari, who succumbed to the injuries sustained by him during such assault. Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the deceased had sustained only minor injuries and it could not be believed that the alleged assault by the petitioner was cause of death of the deceased.
The High Court perused the record and found that the post-mortem report and the opinion of medical expert categorically stated that the deceased had suffered serious injuries which resulted in his death. As such the argument made on behalf of the petitioner that the alleged assault could not be believed to have caused the death of the deceased was untenable. Further, the Court found that the petitioner had earlier preferred another petition under Section 439 before the Court which was rejected. No change in circumstances had been made out. The Court held that the accused had misused the process of law by filing the present petition, suppressing the fact that another petition had already been filed earlier which was rejected. Accordingly, the Court dismissed the petition holding it to be sans merit. [Shankarachari v. State of Karnataka, 2018 SCC OnLine Kar 635, dated 02-05-2018]