Kerala High Court: A Division Bench comprising of A.M. Shaffique and P. Somarajan, JJ., dismissed a criminal appeal wherein, it refused interference with the order passed by the National Investigation Agency Court of refusal to grant bail to the appellant.
In the present case, the Special Court for Trial of NIA Cases rejected the bail application of appellant, i.e., the fifth accused. The appellant is accused to have participated in the criminal conspiracy. It was also alleged that the appellant had helped the other accused persons in absconding from the crime scene by providing a vehicle and was involved in two other crimes. The NIA Court, on consideration, dismissed the bail application against which the present was preferred.
The High Court observed that the appellant was on a different footing than other accused persons to whom bail was granted, as the allegation was that he had provided a vehicle to the assailants to escape from the place of occurrence. The Court also found that the appellant took the assailants to a safe place and provided them with medical treatment in connection with the injury alleged to have been sustained by them during the course of commission of offence. All these would prima facie show that he had played a prominent role in the commission of offence. The Court held that it saw no ground for interference with the order passed by the NIA Court. The appeal was accordingly dismissed. [K. A. Najeeb v. National Investigation Agency,2018 SCC OnLine Ker 2946, dated 01-08-2018]