Allahabad High Court: Manoj Misra and Ali Zamin, JJ. granted bail on the ground that the appellant were on bail pending trial and had not misused the liberty of bail.
A bail application was made against the conviction under Sections 302, 307 read with Section 34 and Section 504 of the Penal Code, 1860. In addition to that accused Nanhe was also convicted under Section 30 Arms Act.
Vinay Kumar Tripathi, Counsel for the appellant contended that four persons were made accused; the deceased suffered a gunshot which was specifically attributed to the other co-accused. No other injury was found on the body of the deceased. As per the prosecution case, the accused/appellant along with the other co-accused came armed with lathi only to settle the score in respect of some past incident regarding straying of accused’s cattle on to the field of the deceased. It was further submitted that the appellants assaulted the deceased with the fists and kicks, which suggested that they did not share common intention with the co-accused Om Prakash Singh, who allegedly fired at the deceased from close range. It was also submitted that the appellants were falsely implicated and the court below had not properly evaluated the evidence on record. It was further submitted that the appellants were on bail pending trial and they have not misused the liberty of bail and in case they are released on bail pending appeal they will not misuse the same.
Counsel for State opposed for the bail but was also not able to prove that apart from gunshot injury any other injury was sustained either by the deceased or the person injured.
The Court opined that hearing of appeal is remote, as more than twenty years’ old appeals are in the queue, keeping in mind the role attributed to the appellants as also the totality of facts and circumstances, without expressing opinion on the merits of the case, we find it a fit case for grant of bail to the appellants during pendency of the appeal. Thus, the bail was granted after imposing restrictions. [Nanhe v. State of U.P., 2019 SCC OnLine All 2430, decided on 01-07-2019]
