Court No. - 64
Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 5499 of 2021 Appellant :- Azeem Respondent :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Appellant :- Mohd Zubair,Gufran Ahmad Khan,Nasira Adil,Sr. Advocate Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Saumitra Dayal Singh,J.
1. Though service report is awaited, upon query made Sri Ankit Srivastava learned A.G.A. States that service of the present bail appeal has been effected on opposite party No. 2 on 26.11.2021.None has appeared on behalf of opposite party No. 2 to oppose the bail appeal. Accordingly the bail appeal has been proceeded on merits.
2. Heard Sri N.I. Jafri learned Senior Counsel assisted by Ms. Nasira Adil, learned counsel for the appellant; Sri Ankit Srivastava, learned AGA for the State and perused the material placed on record.
3. This criminal appeal under Section 14-A(2) of The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 has been preferred by the appellant with the prayer to set aside the order dated 01.11.2021, passed by learned Special Judge S.C./S.T. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Bijnor, in Case Crime No. 344 of 2018, under Sections - 420, 406, 504, 506 I.P.C. and Section 3(1)Da) S.C./S.T. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Police Station - Dhampur, District - Bijnor, whereby bail application of the appellant has been rejected.
4. At the outset, learned counsel for the appellant submits, against the FIR lodged on 22.7.2018, the appellant is in confinement since 08.10.2021; the appellant claims to have cooperated in the investigation. In any case he is not shown to have unduly evaded arrest; the appellant has no criminal history; chargesheet has already been submitted yet, trial has not commenced. Therefore, there is no hope of early conclusion of the trial; on prima facie basis, it has been submitted by learned counsel for the appellant that the First Information Report was lodged with a delay of two years; the applicant had only introduced the first informant to the travel agent; in any case as to the modus operandi is apparent from the statements of independent witnesses. They have all stated that in similar circumstances, their visa and tickets etc. were duly prepared on which they had travelled; as to the present accusation it is submitted by the said witnesses that informant could not travel on the date for which ticket had already been prepared; the mere allegation that the travel documents are forged is unfounded. Also, it has been submitted, the allegations of violation under SC/ST Act are general and made to lend colour to the story.
5. Learned A.G.A. has vehemently opposed the prayer for bail of the appellant.
6. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and having perused the record, at present, the order passed by the learned court below rejecting the bail application filed by the appellant, cannot be sustained.
7. Without drawing any inference as to facts, in view of the above noted facts & submissions and having regard to the status of the evidence, as has been shown to exist on record, let the appellant be enlarged on bail at this stage.
8. Accordingly, this appeal is allowed and the impugned order dated 01.11.2021 , rejecting the bail of the appellant is set aside.
9. Let the accused-appellant, namely, Azeem, involved in the aforesaid crime be released on bail on his furnishing personal bonds and two sureties each of the like amount to the satisfaction of Court concerned subject to the condition that appellant shall cooperate in the trial and will not jump the bail.
Order Date :- 17.12.2021 Faraz