Allahabad High Court
Gurucharan Singh Bhalla (Second Bail) vs State Of U.P. on 7 November, 2019
Author: Karunesh Singh Pawar
Bench: Karunesh Singh Pawar
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH Reserved on 08.05.2019 Delivered On 07.11.2019 Court No. - 27 Case :- BAIL No. - 7833 of 2016 Applicant :- Gurucharan Singh Bhalla (Second Bail) Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. Counsel for Applicant :- Pooshan Upadhyay,Ishan Baghel Counsel for Opposite Party :- Govt. Advocate,Sharad Dixit Hon'ble Karunesh Singh Pawar,J.
1. This is second bail application.
2. The first bail application of the applicant-accused was allowed by this Court vide order dated 30.09.2013 vide criminal Misc. Case No. 4820/2013.
3. Against the order of granting bail, the State of U.P. filed a Special Leave Petition before the Hon'ble Supreme Court vide S.L.P. (Criminal) No. 5193/2014 wherein the bail order granted by this Court was set aside granting liberty to the applicant-accused to file another application of bail if the trial is not commenced within a year. The order dated 08.10.2014 rejecting the bail order passed by this Court is Annexed as Annexure No. 2 to the affidavit filed in support of the bail application.
4. Brief facts as per the prosecution case, are as under:-
(i) Case crime No. 1 of 2013 was registered on 17.04.2013 against five accused persons namely Moh. Khalid, Junaid @ Chhote, Kurban, Ramjan and Babar at Police Station A.T.S., U.P., Lucknow.
(ii) Anti Terrorist Squad received an information that a gang is active in U.P, Maharashtra, Kokata and Haryana who is manufacturing, selling and supplying the illegal arms.
(iii) After receiving the information that illegal arms and arms parts are being transported/supplied from Kanpur to Lucknow, a team of A.T.S. was constituted which on 17.04.2013 arrested one Mohd. Khalid (co-accused) at Kanpur-Lucknow highway.
(iv) Several incriminating articles were recovered from accused-Khalid and recovery memo was prepared and first information report was registered as case crime No. 01/2013, under Sections 420/467/468/471/120-B I.P.C. and Section 5/25/30 of Arms Act at Police Station ATS, District Lucknow.
(v) During interrogation Mohd. Khalid confessed about the active gang and disclosed the names of the co-accused Junaid Arshad @ Chote and Jafar @ Babar resident of Kanpur.
(vi) Second team of A.T.S. was immediately sent to Kanpur which arrested Junaid Arshad on 18.04.2013 and recovery of pistol and a sketch of pistol was made from him. The co-accused Junaid, Arshad confessed and disclosed that he supplied the arms to Mohd. Khalid after getting it manufactured from Kallu Sharma and one Vimal Kishore Vishwakarma. Both Kallu Sharma and Vimal Kishore Vishwakarma, co-accaused were also arrested on 18.04.2013 and from them again incriminating articles were recovered.
(vii) The offence of case crime No. 2, 3 and 4/2013 were connected/linked with crime No. 01/2013 and as such were merged in crime No. 01/2013, Police Station A.T.S., U.P. Lucknow.
(viii) Upon the confessional statements of Moh. Khalid, his house was searched on 18.04.2013 and recoveries were made. Mohd. Khalid was then taken to police custody remand and during remand he made substantial disclosures. The co-accused who is naxalite namely Mantu Sharma @ Sanjay Singh had purchased rifles from the shop of Amit Pal, Guru Ram Das Armory, Kanpur. The alleged license of Mantu Sharma issued from Udhampur, State of Jammu Kashmir was found to be forged.
(ix) Thirteen accused persons have been arrested who are alleged to be committing the present crime in a gang in an organized way. The details of the accused persons with their involvement/role in short is as under:-
(a) Mohd. Khalid:- Master mind and managing the National Gun House. Supplier of illegal arms after getting it manufactured with the help of co-accused persons.
(b) Mohd. Junaid Arshad:- Under the direction of Mohd. Khalid, he collects and provides raw material, iron, pipe, spring, body frame for manufacturing the illegal foreign make arms. To get the arms prepared from Kallo and Vimal Kishore Vishwakarma and thereafter getting the number printed on the arms from Pawan Paintographer.
(c) Kallu Sharma:- Operator of EDM Machine (Electronic Discharge Machine).
(d) Vimal Kishore:- Operator of surfacing and grinding machine.
(e) Alvin Disa:- Smuggler of Arms Parts.
(f) Gurcharan Singh:- Arms Dealer. Owner of National Gun House Latouche Road, Lucknow. Supplied the arms to anti-national elements.
(g) Ramzan Ali:- Mechanic of arms. His work is finishing, polishing and preparation of block from Raju Peeter and getting the number printed on arms from Paintography machine of Pawan.
(h) Zafar Arshad:- Under the direction of Mohd. Khalid, he collects and provides raw material, iron, pipe, spring, body frame for manufacturing the illegal foreign make arm. To get the arms prepared from Kalloo and Vimal Kishore Vishwakarma and thereafter getting the number printed on the arms from Pawan Printographer.
(i) Amit Pal Singh:- He is owner of Guru Ram Das Armary. He supplies arms to anti national elements. The son of Gurcharan Singh Bhalla (co-accused).
(j) Anil Kumar Jain:- Owner of Jain brothers. He supplies the illegal arms to anti national elements.
(k) Ajay Pal:- Owner of Kisan Gun House. Supply of illegal arms.
(l) Harish Chandra Pandey:- Manager of Kisan Gun House. Manipulation in the arms record of the shop.
(m) Mantu Sharma:- Agent between arms dealers and anti national elements and supplier of the arms.
(x) The co-accused Mantu Sharma along with naxalites were arrested on 28.04.2012 by police of P.S. Kankarbagh, District Patna, Bihar and recovery of A.K.-56 rifle and other arms were made from his possession. Mantu Sharma confessed his guilt and stated that arms and ammunition have been obtained from Guru Ram Das Armory, Kanpur, U.P.
(xi) Looking to the gravity and nature of the recovery of fire arms, the investigation of crime no. 362/2012 registered as P.S. Kankarbagh, District Patna was taken by National Investigating Agency and registered the case vide R.C. No. 08/12/N.I.A.D.L.I., under Sections 386/387/121/121-A,414/120B I.P.C. and 25(Ib)/A/26/35 of Arms Act and Section 10/13 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act
5. Sri I.B. Singh, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri Ishaan Bhagel, learned counsel for the applicant in support of the bail application submitted as under:-
(i) The first submission regarding period of detention is that the applicant is in jail since 18/19.05.2013 except for a few days when the applicant-accused was bailed out on 30.09.2013 but on 20.11.2013 the F.I.R. under Gangster Act was lodged and the applicant-accused surrendered himself before the concerned court and since then he is in jail.
(ii) The second argument is that the applicant-accused is 1947 born and is almost seventy years of age and has no previous criminal history.
(iii) It has been further submitted on behalf of the applicant that the learned trial court on 02.05.2015 has made adverse observations against the prosecution. It is further contended that the prosecution manipulated the document of National Gun House, Lucknow.
(iv) It is next submitted that on the basis of the false statement given by Mantu Sharma that the applicant-accused was a co-conspirator, he has been implicated in this case, although the applicant was not named in case crime No. 353/2008, registered in Police Station Gandhi Maidan, District Patna.
(v) It is next contended that in the present case one Inspector Tej Bahadur Singh was cross-examined and who has not supported the prosecution case. PW-1 has further admitted that no due diligence as statutorily prescribed for the seizure of the original documents of the gun shop was effected rendering the entire exercise perfunctory.
(vi) It is lastly submitted by learned counsel for the applicant that only a copy of charge sheet was supplied and compliance of Section 207 Cr.P.C. was not made.
6. Per contra Sri Shiv Nath Tilahari, learned A.G.A. opposed the bail application and submitted as under:-
(i) He denied the submission of learned counsel for the applicant that only a copy of charge sheet was supplied submitting that learned court below in its order dated 15.05.2015 has observed that the copies of the documents have been provided to the accused persons and the application moved by the present accused were rejected.
(ii) He further submitted that learned trial court while passing the order dated 15.05.2015 observed that the accused persons are trying to delay the trial of the case. The order dated 15.05.2015 is on record.
(iii) He further submitted that during investigation from the gun shop of the applicant namely National Gun House and Gun Shop of the son of the applicant namely Guru Ram Das Armory, Meston Road, Kanpur, several illegal arms have been supplied and on verification of the records from the concerned District Authorities, it has transpired that the entries have been found to be fake.
(iv) He further submitted that this is the second bail application and the first bail application of the applicant was dismissed on merits and therefore only ground available for him to argue on parity and long incarceration.
(v) He further submitted that vide order dated 27.03.2018 this Court has dismissed the bail application of the co-accused persons on merits which are annexed as Annexure No. SCA-1 of the supplementary counter affidavit filed by the State. The co-accused Anil Kumar Jain has preferred the S.L.P. (Criminal) No. 5074/2018 "Anil Kumar Jain vs. State of U.P." before the Hon'ble Supreme Court against the order dated 27.03.2018 and the Hon'ble Supreme Court vide order dated 27.11.2018 has granted bail to Anil Kumar Jain. The other co-accused namely Mohd. Khalid and Mantu Sharma had also preferred the S.L.P. Criminal Nos. 5126 of 2018, 5221-5222 of 2018 respectively challenging the order dated 27.03.2018 passed by this Court on which the Hon'ble Supreme Court vide order dated 27.11.2018 has dismissed as withdrawn.
(vi) The co-accused namely Amit Pal Singh filed Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 10925/2018, before the Hon'ble Supreme Court challenging the order dated 27.03.2018 and Hon'ble Apex Court vide judgment and order dated 27.11.2018 has been pleased to dismiss the special leave petition. While dismissing the special leave petition, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has taken into consideration, the order dated 27.11.2018 granting bail to Anil Kumar Jain.
(vii) He further submitted that the Hon'ble Supreme Court denied the release of Amit Pal Singh (co-accused) on the ground of parity and also on the ground of detention period. Therefore, it is submitted that the applicant is not entitled for parity as vide order dated 29.01.2019 the Hon'ble Supreme Court did not give parity of Anil Kumar Jain to Amit Pal Singh with observation that "allegations made against the petitioner are serious and do not entitle him to be released on bail during pendency of trial". It also did not release Amit Pal Singh on the ground of period of detention and further has not released him on bail on the ground that many witnesses have to be examined yet.
(viii) The bail of Anil Kumar Jain in crime No. 04/2013, under Sections 2/3(b) of U.P. Gangster Act has been rejected by this Court on 08.03.2019 in bail No. 873/2019 despite bail granted to him by the Supreme Court. The bail application of Amit Pal Singh in crime No. 04/2013, under Section 2/3 of U.P. Gangster Act was rejected by this Court vide order dated 14.12.2016 passed in C.M.C. No. 6212/2016. He submitted that so far as the argument of the counsel of the applicant that prosecution is delaying the trial, he has invited the attention of the Court on the observation made by the learned trial court in its order dated 15.05.2015 wherein it has been observed that the accused is delaying the process of trial. It has been observed that during investigation a complaint from prosecution witness Raju Gautam regarding threat given to him on behalf of the accused-applicant Gurcharan Singh, which indicates that the accused persons are trying to tamper with the prosecution witnesses, has been received.
(ix) The statement of Raju Gautam has been recorded in which he submitte that the accused Gurcharan Singh Bhalla is owner of the National Gun House and the accused Amit Pal Singh son of the applicant is owner of the Ram Das Armory, Kanpur.
(x) The co-accused Mohd. Khalid was running a shop National Gun House owned by Gurcharan Singh Bhalla and he was giving share of profit to the owner of each and every sale and purchase which is evident from the statement of prosecution witnesses namely Vijay Peetar, Parvej Khan and Asheesh Mehrotra. Search of National Gun House was conducted in the presence of owner of Gurbachan Singh, prosecution witnesses Vijay Peetar and the then City Magistrate Sri Arun Kumar, Circle Officer Kaiserbagh Sri Hridesh Kumar. He also submitted that from the gun shop of the applicant and the shop of his son, many illegal arms have been supplied and the verification of the record from the concerned District Authorities, it has been transpired that the entries are fake. It has further invited attention of the Court towards the details of few fake licences on which arms were supplied/sold which are annexed as Annexure No. CA-1, CA-6 to CA-10.
(xi) He further submitted that during investigation it has been revealed that two declared naxalites namely Mritunjay and Mantu Sharma has been supplied fire arms from National Gun House owned by the applicant.
7. Having considered the submission of the parties and material on record, considering the gravity of the offence, rejection order dated 27.11.2018 and 29.01.2019 passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of co-accused persons and also considering the observations recorded by the trial court in its order dated 15.05.2015 that the accused is delaying the process of trial and the complaint regarding threat given to the prosecution witnesses Raju Gautam and copy of complaint and statement of Raju Gautam, I do not think it is a fit case for bail.
8. The bail application is accordingly rejected at this stage.
Order Date:- 07.11.2019 R.C.