Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Mojahid Ansari vs Unknown on 22 January, 2025
Author: Arijit Banerjee
Bench: Arijit Banerjee
22.01.2025
Item no. 60.
Court No.29.
AB
(Allowed)
CRM (DB) 3418 of 2024
In Re: An Application for Bail under Section 439 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973/Under Section 483 of the Bharatiya
Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 in connection with Raiganj
Police Station Case No.805 of 2021 Dated 17.09.2021 under
Sections 447/324/326/307/302/34 of the Indian Penal Code
And
In the matter of : Mojahid Ansari ......Petitioner.
Mr. Kunal Ganguly,
Mr. Koustav Banerjee ......for the Petitioner.
Ms. Subhasree Patel,
Mr. Dipankar Mahata ......for the State.
Dictated by Arijit Banerjee, J.
1. The petitioner says that he is in custody for almost three years and four months. Only 5 out of 18 charge sheet named witnesses have been examined, that too, in part. There is no possibility of an early conclusion of the trial. On the touchstone of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, he prays for bail.
2. The State has filed a status report. Let the same be kept with the records.
3. Learned State Counsel tells us that the petitioner has also contributed to the delay in progress of the trial. All efforts will be made to expedite the trial.
4. From the material on record, we do not find that it is the petitioner, who can be made responsible for the delay to Signed By :
APURBA BANDYOPADHYAY High Court of Calcutta 22 nd of January 2025 05:02:43 PM 2 any appreciable extent. He is in custody for a fairly long period of time. There is very little possibility of an early conclusion of the trial.
5. Considering the prolonged detention of the petitioner, without touching the merits of the case, solely on the touchstone of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, we feel impelled to allow the petitioner's prayer for bail.
6. Accordingly, we direct that the petitioner, namely MOJAHID ANSARI shall be released on bail upon furnishing a bond of Rs.10,000/-, with two sureties of like amount each, one of whom must be local, to the satisfaction of the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Uttar Dinajpur at Raiganj, and on further conditions that he shall remain within the jurisdiction of the Raiganj Police Station and shall report to the Officer-in- Charge of the Raiganj Police Station once in a week until further orders.
7. The petitioner shall appear before the trial court on every date of hearing until further orders and shall not intimidate the witnesses and/or tamper with evidence and/or commit any cognizable offence in any manner whatsoever.
8. In the event the petitioner fails to adhere to any of the conditions stipulated above without justifiable cause, the trial court shall be at liberty to cancel the 3 petitioner's bail in accordance with law without further reference to this Court.
9. The application for bail is, accordingly, allowed.
10. All parties shall act in terms of server copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court.
(Arijit Banerjee, J.) (Apurba Sinha Ray, J.)