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Judgment
A.Y. Kogje, J
The present application is filed under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, for regular bail in connection with CR No.I-466 of 2006 registered with Jamnagar City 'B' Division Police Station, Jamnagar for the offence under Sections 302, 307 and 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 25(1-B)(A) and 27(1) of the Arms Act and Section 135(1) of the Gujarat Police Act.
It is pertinent to observe at this stage that previous application for bail being Criminal Misc. Application No.15708 of 2020 was rejected on merits by order dated 18-02-2021 and such order came to be confirmed by the Apex Court in its order dated 02-02-2022 passed in Special Leave to Appeal No.4201 of 2021.
Learned Advocate for the applicant has submitted that on account of the liberty reserved in the order by the Apex Court, Successive application is moved for regular bail. It is submitted that after the order passed on the previous occasion, there does not appear to be any substantial progress in the trial. Not only that the applicant is already in the custody since 4th May, 2008. Therefore, considering the amount of period that the applicant has been in jail, the Court may exercise discretion in favour of the applicant.
As against this, learned APP has objected to grant of application and submitted that the trial is in progress. One co-accused is absconding, which has caused hindrance in the trial. The incident is of 2006 in connection of which applicant could be arrested after two years i.e. in the year 2008. It is submitted that the applicant is a habitual offender involved in 17 serious offences and present case is also that of contract killing.
Having considered the rival submissions of the parties and having perused the documents on record, it appears that the incident is of 13-12-2006, which appears to be arising out of the contract killing, where the applicant though being a Police Officer, came to be involved not only in the present offence, but is also an accused of 17 such serious offences. It is reported though that in 2 offences, the applicant has been acquitted.
It is also pertinent to observe that though the applicant was arrested in the year 2008, continued as undertrial, it was in the year 2021 that application was made for regular bail, which came to be rejected on merits.
As the order has been confirmed by the Apex Court, as stated in the preceding paras, there is no subsequent change and therefore, there is no question of examining the case of the applicant on merits, as the Apex Court has already examined the case on merits and still not entertained the case of the applicant. Therefore, considering the submission with regard to delay in the trial, it would be pertinent to observe that the trial is in progress and reportedly 9 witnesses have been already examined. One of the accused is absconding. There does not appear to be any application on the part of the applicant to segregate his trial in the meantime.
The Court has also taken into consideration the order passed by the Sessions Court in Criminal Misc. Application No.1107 of 2022, which came to be dismissed by order dated 15-10-2022, wherein the Court has expressed satisfactory progress in the trail and has also raised apprehension regarding availability of the applicant during the trial.
The Court finds no reason to exercise discretion in favour of the applicant at this stage, as even according to the Court, the trial is in progress, where 9 witnesses have been examined.
In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, no case is made out for the exercise of discretion in favour of the applicant for the grant of regular bail in connection with aforesaid C.R. Hence, the application is hereby dismissed.