Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Bimal Gurung vs The State Of West Bengal on 1 April, 2014
Author: Jayanta Kumar Biswas
Bench: Jayanta Kumar Biswas
In The High Court At Calcutta 1 Criminal Miscellaneous Jurisdiction Appellate Side Present:
The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Jayanta Kumar Biswas and The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Indrajit Chatterjee CRM No.4521 of 2014 Bimal Gurung v.
The State of West Bengal Mr. Milon Mukherjee Mr. Dinesh Chandra Rai Mr. Biswajit Manna ... for the petitioner.
Mr. Manjit Singh, PP Mr. Prasun Dutta Mr. Madhusudan Sur Mr. Arijit Ganguly Mr. Rajdeep Majumder ... for the State. Mr. Bhaskar Sen Mr. Indranil Roy Mr. Arnab Mukherjee Mr. A. Bhattacharjee ...for Bharati Tamang. Heard on: April 1, 2014. Order on: April 1, 2014.
Jayanta Kumar Biswas, J:- The petitioner in the CRM saying that he is apprehending arrest in connection with Kalimpong P.S. Case No.105 of 2008 dated July 27, 2008 under ss.147/148/149/336/109/114/448/436/427/323/380 IPC is seeking bail under s.438 CrPC.
Mr. Mukherjee appearing for the petitioner has submitted as follows. The petitioner is the Chief Executive Officer of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration formed under an agreement dated July 18, 2011 executed by the Government of India, the Government of West Bengal and the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha. Though the petitioner was in no way connected with the incident over which the case was instituted, he has been falsely implicated in the case out of political rivalry. It is evident from the information of the incident that the petitioner was 2 not present at the place of occurrence. The prosecution is likely to arrest the petitioner only to humiliate him in the eyes of his large number of followers.
Mr. Public Prosecutor appearing for the State has submitted as follows. The petitioner has a remarkable past. He is involved in several other criminal cases. He was named in the FIR. The charge-sheet was submitted on June 14, 2012. He is no.31 in the charge-sheet. Arrest warrant order was passed on December 29, 2012. Proclamation and attachment order was passed on May 13, 2013.
Mr. Sen appearing for the wife of one Madan Tamang stated to have been murdered has prayed for leave to make submission and has submitted as follows. The Madan Tamang murder case is under investigation. It is being investigated by the CBI. The Supreme Court has been overseeing the investigation. The Supreme Court has passed several orders. The orders will reveal that nobody dared to arrest the petitioner, though he was actively associated with the commission of the offences.
We have carefully examined the case diary materials containing a copy of the formal FIR and the information of the incident. The de facto complainant named eleven persons. It was alleged that the persons committed the offences in execution of direction given by the petitioner. At the relevant place of the formal FIR names of eleven persons were written. A sheet was inserted in the case diary with a view to showing that names of the other accused were written on a separate sheet. In the inserted sheet the petitioner's name was mentioned.
Though the FIR was registered as back as July 27, 2008, till June 14, 2012 when the charge-sheet was submitted the petitioner was not arrested; and it was mentioned in the charge-sheet. The investigating officer did not find any reason to arrest the petitioner from July 27, 2008 till June 14, 2012. Since the petitioner was named in the charge-sheet, the officer prayed for arrest warrant.3
Proclamation was issued. But there is nothing to show that the petitioner was declared a proclaimed offender.
Considering the facts and circumstances, the nature and gravity of the offences, and the petitioner's likely involvement in the commission of the offences, we think it will be appropriate to grant him anticipatory bail.
For these reasons, we allow the CRM and direct that in the event the petitioner is arrested in connection with the case, he shall be released on bail to the satisfaction of the arresting officer. Certified xerox.
(Jayanta Kumar Biswas, J.)
S.M. (Indrajit Chatterjee, J.)