Madras High Court: In an appeal against the order passed by the Special Court rejecting the appellant’s bail, the division bench of P.N. Prakash and RMT. Teekaa Raman did not support the reason provided by the Special Court for rejecting the bail application.
The National Investigation Agency registered the case under Sections 120-B, 465, 467, 468, 471, 472 and 474 of the Penal Code (‘IPC’), Sections 10, 13, 38 and 39 of the UAPA, 1967, Sections 12(1)(b) and 12(1A)(a) of the Passport Act, 1967 and Section 14(a) of Foreigners (Amendment) Act, 2004.
The Court noted that police have registered the FIR under IPC and further added Sections 18, 39 and 40 of the UAPA, thereafter, NIA took up the case. Further, as per the final report against the appellants, the present charges are only under Sections 120-B, 419, 465, 468 and 471 read with Section 109 IPC and the other alleged offences under UAPA, Passport Act and Foreigners (Amendment Act) were deleted by NIA after investigation.
The Court did not support the reason assigned by the Special Court for rejecting the bail that though the appellants are not charged under the provisions of the UAPA directly, but they have been charged for criminal conspiracy under Section 120-B of IPC, which attracts the offence punishable under the provisions of UAPA; as the appellants were initially charged under the provisions of UAPA, later, after completing the investigation, charges under it were dropped against the appellants by the prosecution itself.
Therefore, the Court, while considering the period of incarceration and the fact that one of the accused has been granted bail by this Court, ordered the authorities to release the appellants on bail subject to certain conditions.
[G. Dharmendran v. Union of India, 2022 SCC OnLine Mad 5241, decided on 01-11-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
V. Maharajan, Advocate, for the Appellant;
R. Karthikeyan, Special Public Prosecutor, for the Respondent.
*Apoorva Goel, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.
