Bombay High Court
Amit Niranjan Singh vs The State Of Maharashtra on 14 October, 2022
Author: Bharati Dangre
Bench: Bharati Dangre
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
BAIL APPLICATION NO.300 OF 2022
Amit Niranjan Singh .. Applicant
Versus
The State of Maharashtra .. Respondent
Mr. Aabad Ponda, Senior Advocate h/f Adv. Bhomesh Bellam
for the applicant.
Mr. Vaibhav Bagade, SPP for the State.
Mr. Sawant- API, Mr. Guwas- PI.
CORAM: BHARATI DANGRE, J.
RESERVED ON: 12th OCTOBER, 2022
PRONOUNCED ON: 14th NOVEMBER,2022
P.C:-
1. The applicant seek his release on bail, while he face charge
under sections 302, 307, 120 B read with 34 of IPC and sections
3, 25 and 27 of the Arms Act. The applicant came to be arrested
on 8/5/2018 and on completion of investigation the main charge-
sheet and a supplementary charge-sheet has been filed.
The applicant seek his release on bail on the ground that
there is no material in the charge-sheet sufficiently justifying his
further incarceration and in any case he will face the accusations
during the course of the trial. Apart from this the long
incarceration of four years is also projected as a ground for
securing the liberty.
In support of the applicant I have heard learned Senior
counsel Mr. Ponda for the applicant and the learned Special
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Public Prosecutor Adv. Vaibhav Bagade for the State.
2. I have perused the charge-sheet with the able assistance of
the respective counsels and I have also perused the distinct order
passed in case of the co-accused.
The alleged incident, which resulted in registration of the
subject C.R. occurred on 24/2/2018, when Mr. Sachin Vasant
Sawant was shot by two unknown men near Gokulnagar,
Opposite Sai Baba Temple, Kandiwali (East). The son of the
deceased is the informant, who gave the background in which
the crime took place by stating that they are residing in Ganesh
Krupa and Prabhat Chawl, Kandivali, where the redevelopment
project is going on since last 11 years. It is his narration that the
redevelopment project was carried out by one Akash Developers
and the deceased was supervising the said project. Out of 1300
persons covered in the redevelopment project 820 had consented
for redevelopment, however about 100-125 people did not agree
and they vehemently opposed the development. On 18/4/2018
the deceased organized the Bhoomi Poojan for the said
development project and the persons named in the complaint,
who were opposing the project had placed hoardings outside the
Bhoomi Poojan site, as a result of which a fight had ensued and
some other persons, who were not resident of the chawl also got
themselves involved into the said discord. Police reached the
place and pulled down all the banners and hoardings and tried to
pacify the dispute. After this the Bhoomi Poojan was carried out
as scheduled.
3. On 22/4/2018, the deceased received a call for attending
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the meeting at Shakha-39 and he left with one Amit Walavankar
on a motorbike and while enroute he was shot near Sai Baba
temple. The bystanders as well as the person driving the bike
informed that, when they were on the bike two unknown men
called out the deceased and ask him to stop. The moment they
stopped the two men took out the guns and opened fire at the
deceased.
As far as the present applicant is concerned though he is
not charged as one of the assailant. The role attributed to him is
that he aided and harboured the main accused in the crime. He
came to be arrested on 8/5/2018 and claim his release on bail by
submitting that co-accused Brijesh Singh has been released on
bail by this court on 20/02/2019.
4. The applicant is charge-sheeted as accused no.7 and It is
alleged in the charge-sheet that accused no.1 Lokesh and accused
no.2 Abhay, who are the actual assailants and, who have been
identified by three witnesses are the friends of the applicant and
after the incident of firing took place accused no.2 called the
applicant, who helped him to conceal the murder weapon. The
charge-sheet also accuse the applicant of assisting accused no.1
and 2 to reach Nalasopara and from where, he helped them to
reach Uttar Pradesh and for rendering such assistance Satyendra
@ Sonu Pal, accused no.3 had parted a sum of Rs. 50,000 and
applicant provided shelter to accused no.1 and 2, the assailants at
his house at Uttar Pradesh.
The material to establish the aforesaid accusation is in
form of call records with three calls with accused no.1, 49 calls
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with accused no.2 and 122 calls with accused no.3. Statement of
the co-accused are relied upon to establish that the applicant was
the part of the meeting when the murder was planned. Apart
from this another circumstance which is claimed to be
incriminating against the applicant is seizure of a newspaper in
which the weapon was wrapped which was recovered at the
instance of Ajay Kumar Pal, accused no.9 on which the name
and phone number of the applicant was mentioned. The
panchnama dated 1/5/2019 lead to discovery of the weapon
wrapped in a newspaper. Apart from this the material in the
charge-sheet is in form of statement of witnesses to reflect that
11 days before the incident the applicant was seen in the
company of the co-accused Nilesh Sharma and Brijesh Patel and
had a spat with the deceased pursuant to which the applicant
along with the other co-accused were called by accused no.5
Nilesh Sharma on the spot. These are the statements of the
witnesses Shrikant Yadav, Kiran More and Sandesh Patil.
5. The learned senior counsel Mr. Ponda would submit that
the charge-sheet do not accuse the applicant to be the main
assailant, and the only role attributed to him is harboring the co-
accused, though no charge under section 212 of IPC is framed.
The learned counsel would further submit that except the
statements of the co-accused, there is nothing on record to
establish the circumstance of the presence of the applicant for
any meeting at any place, as alleged. No specific role is
attributed to the applicant in any of the incidents narrated by the
witnesses and therefore mere presence would not attribute any
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motive to him particularly when it is not the case of the
prosecution that the applicant had any direct nexus to the
deceased neither in form of friendly terms nor on enimical one.
Further submission advanced on behalf of the applicant as
regards the recovery of newspaper in which the weapon was
found to be wrapped, and recovered at the instance of Ajay
Kumar Pal, it is the specific submission of the learned counsel
that the panchnama is dated 1/5/2019 i.e. more than a year after
the arrest of the applicant.
6. When the material compiled in the charge-sheet is
carefully perused, the involvement of the deceased in the
redevelopment project clearly surface on record as it appear that
Brijesh Patel accused no.4, who was a member of Prabhat
Welfare Society was opposing the project, which was supervised
by the deceased. In any case there is no material to establish that
the applicant was in any way connected to the redevelopment
project as far as the conspiracy of committing the murder of the
deceased is concerned, certain statements are relied upon by the
prosecution, which include statement of one Shrikant Yadav,
who has given the background of the discord between the
members of the society with the deceased by making reference
to the election for the post of Nagar Sevak. Sachin Sawant a
member of Shivsena had canvassed for Vinaya Vishnu Sawant
and it is alleged that Brijesh Singh, Brijesh Patel and Nilesh
Sharma the co-accused had canvassed for BJP candidate and
some verable altercation had occurred with the deceased on that
count. He also state that these three co-accused started creating
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obstacle in the redevelopment work and there is a reference of an
incident which took place on 11/4/2018, when it is stated that
one program was organized by Akash Developers and at that
time co-accused Brijesh Patel had brought some boys from
outside the locality, which was objected too by the deceased.
Tempers ran high on account of the said incident and co-accused
no.5 Nilesh Sharma threatened the deceased of dire
consequences and it is alleged that certain persons gathered in
the office of Brijesh Patel and the applicant is stated to be one of
the person. Except this no other role is specifically attributed to
the applicant.
Though the prosecution rely upon statement of one Raju
Thakare, the said statement make a reference to one Amit
Thakur which is not the applicant. The conspiracy in form of the
meetings which are referred by the said witness by co-accused
Sonu Pal make a mention of co-accused no.6, 5 accused no.3 and
Umesh Sahani accused No.8. There is no reference to the present
applicant and even the said witness has given statement on the
basis of information provided to him by one of the co-accused
Umesh Sahani.
7. The prosecution rely upon the CDRs of the applicant and
when the said document is perused, it can be seen that there are
calls made between the applicant and the accused no.1 and
accused no.3 Sonu Pal @ Sateyndra but it can be seen that since
all the said accused persons are resident Appa Pada i.e. in the
same locality where the applicant is residing, the said call by
themselves cannot be said to be incriminatory. The charge-sheet
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refer to specific query raised to the service provider about the
presence of the applicant from 29/4/2018 to 30/4/2018. The
response received is that from 29/4/2018 to 30/4/2018 the
applicant was in Madhya Pradesh and from 30/4/2018 to
6/5/2018 he was in Uttar Pradesh. There is no material in the
charge-sheet disclosing the whereabouts of the applicant from
22/4/2018 to 29/4/2018.
The location of the applicant according to the CDR is
found to Appa Pada on the date of incident along with the other
accused persons, but I find justification in the submission of the
learned senior counsel that since the applicant is resident of
Appa Pada, nothing unusual can be inferred for his presence in
the said area.
8. The prosecution also rely upon the memorandum under
section 27 of the Evidence Act from co-accused Ajay Pal, which
lead to a newspaper with the name and mobile number of the
applicant. But since the recovery is after considerable length of
time, its reliability and authenticity will be determined during the
course of trial. The pictures of the applicant with the co-accused
are similarly not sufficient by itself to establish the conspiracy
since the applicant is residing in the same area, where the co-
accused Nilesh is residing. Except the 27 memorandum
statement nothing incriminates the present applicant directly, he
therefore deserve his liberty, though he may face the accusations
at the trial.
In any case the contents of the conversion are not available
and merely because the applicant was found in touch with the
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co-accused through telephone calls, they being resident of same
locality this factor by itself cannot be said to be incriminatory.
Another ground on which the applicant must secure his
liberty is his long incarceration for last four years with the trial
not being in foresight. This factor must weigh in favour of the
applicant. Hence I deem it appropriate to pass the following
order.
: ORDER :
(a) Application is allowed.
(b) Applicant - Amit Niranjan Singh shall be
released on bail in connection with C.R.No. 249 of 2018 registered with Kurar Police Station on furnishing P.R. Bond to the extent of Rs.25,000/- with one or two sureties in the like amount.
(c) The applicant shall mark his attendance before the concerned police station on first Monday of every month between 5:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m till framing of charge and, thereafter, shall abide by the directions issued by the trial Court.
(d) The applicant shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing the facts to Court or any Police Officer. The applicant shall not tamper with evidence.
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(e) On being released on bail, the applicant shall
furnish his contact number and residential address to the Investigating Officer and shall keep him updated, in case there is any change.
(f) The applicant shall not leave city of Mumbai without permission of the Sessions Court.
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