Supreme Court: In a criminal appeal against the Bombay High Court’s order whereby, the accused person’s bail application under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for offences under Sections 376(3), 376(d)(a), 376(2)(f)(j)(n), 354(D), 504, 506, read with Section 34 of the Penal Code, 1860 and Sections 3, 8, 10, 12, 14, 25 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and under Section 67(A), 67(B), 66(E) of the Information and Technology Act, 2000 was dismissed, the Division Bench of A.S. Bopanna and Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha, JJ. allowed the appeal and ordered the release of the accused person on bail, considering that the accused was in custody for a period of more than five years.
In the matter at hand, a First Information Report (‘FIR’) was registered against eight accused persons for raping the informant’s daughter by intoxicating her. The High Court dismissed the accused person’s bail application considering the seriousness of the offence and the fact that it was a gang rape, and it would be a hindrance in the fair trial if the accused was granted bail at that stage. Aggrieved by the said orders, the accused approached the Court.
The Court noted that the accused person was in custody for more than five years as an under-trial prisoner. The Court said that though the trial progressed, it did not progress at the pace it was expected to be progressed. Therefore, the Court considered it appropriate to release the accused on bail subject to appropriate conditions. The Court also said that the accused person shall diligently participate in the trial and shall not give room for complaints.
[Javed Shah Abdul Shah v. State of Maharashtra, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1337, Order dated: 12-10-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the accused: Advocate on Record Anshuman Ashok, Advocate Adviteeya Sharma, Advocate Imran Khan Deshmukh, Advocate Mumtaz Javed Shaikh
For the respondent: Advocate on Record Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Advocate Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Advocate Sourav Singh, Advocate Aditya Krishna, Advocate Anurag Gharote, Advocate Pragya Baghel
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