Naresh Dutt Sharma vs State Of H.P

Vivek Singh Thakur, J

Present petition has been filed under Section 439 Cr.P.C., seeking regular bail in case FIR No. 120 of 2020, dated 11.5.2020, registered at Police Station Solan, District Solan, under Sections 452, 307, 34 and 188 of IPC and 25 and 27 of the Arms Act.

Petitioner was arrested on 11th May, 2020 and after remaining in police custody, he was sent to judicial custody and at present, he is in judicial custody.

Status report stands filed. As per status report, on 11th May, 2020, information was received in Police Station that one person had fired at a woman and the said woman is being brought to the Regional Hospital, Solan for treatment. Whereupon, Sub Inspector Sher Singh rushed to the hospital where complainant had made her statement, under Section 154 Cr.P.C., according to which, her daughter Suman Kumari was married to main accused Bhupinder Singh but because of ill-treatment of Bhupinder Singh, her daughter along with her children came to her and was residing in her house in village Damrog and during intervening night of 10th and 11th May, 2020, at about 12 midnight, main accused Bhupinder Singh came to her house at village Damrog and cried asking to open the door, but she refused to open the door during night. Thereafter, Bhupinder Singh started firing from outside, whereupon she (complainant), her daughter Suman along with her two children took shelter in a worship room. Thereafter, Bhupinder Singh broke the door and started firing towards worship room and one bullet hit her daughter Suman on shoulder and she (complainant) had a narrow escape and after bullet injury to Suman, she opened the door of worship room, whereupon Bhupinder Singh started abusing and ran from spot and thereafter she informed her son Ajay Thakur and Hima Devi etc. and brought her daughter Suman to hospital. Lastly, it is alleged that Bhupinder Singh had tried to kill the daughter of complainant i.e. Suman.

4 As per status report, after initial treatment, injured Suman was referred from Regional Hospital, Solan to PGI Chandigarh, where she remained under treatment from 11.5.2020 to 27.5.2020 and her statement has been recorded on 30.5.2020.

During investigation, 7 empty shells of bullet and 2 live cartridges of 303 have also been recovered besides blood lying on spot. As per status report, main accused Bhupinder Singh, being a Home-guard, was posted on duty at Parwanoo Barrier on 10.5.2020 since 8 PM to 12 midnight, but he abandoned the duty and came to Damrog, and committed the offence by misusing duty Rifle '303' and ammunition assigned to him for performing official duty.

It has also been stated in status report that present petitioner is a taxi driver and he had conversation with main accused after 8 PM till 10.24 PM for 5 times and he had taken the main accused in his taxi from Parwanoo to Damrog and had taken him back.

7 Learned Additional Advocate General, as per instructions received by him, submits that in 5 calls, first call was made by main accused at about 8.25 PM for 5.15 seconds, whereas second call was made by bail petitioner for 4.51 seconds at 8.50 PM and third call was also made by bail petitioner which was for 43 second at 9.13 PM, whereas fourth and fifth calls were made by main accused for 11 and 21 seconds respectively and thereafter vehicle was made available by petitioner to main accused.

8 Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner is a taxi driver and he is known to main accused and main accused had contacted him to provide taxi as main accused was intending to meet his wife and conversation in these calls for making the taxi available to main accused as he was interested to meet his wife.

9 It is also submitted by learned counsel for the petitioner that at present, apart from these telephonic calls and providing taxi by petitioner to main accused, there is no other evidence linking the petitioner with commission of offence and petitioner was unaware about intention of main accused and he had simply provided the vehicle to facilitate the main accused to meet his wife.

10 Without going to the merits of submissions and material placed before the Court, in the facts and circumstances stated herein-above, I find that role of main accused is entirely different from bail petitioner and he can be treated differently from main accused, whereas, there is direct evidence of involvement of main accused in commission of offence as alleged in FIR. Therefore, the petitioner, may, at this stage, be enlarged on bail and accordingly, he is directed to be released in present case subject to furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs.30,000/- with one surety in the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial Court within two weeks from today, subject to the following conditions:-

(i) That the petitioner shall make himself available for investigation as well as for trial before the Court on each and every date as and when required;

(ii) That the petitioner shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to Court or to any police officer or tamper with the evidence. He shall not, in any manner, try to overawe or influence or intimidate the prosecution witnesses;

(ii) That he shall not obstruct the smooth progress of the investigation as well as trial;

(iii) That he shall not jump over the bail and shall inform, in writing, regarding change of address, land line number and/or mobile number, if any, in advance, to P.S. Sadar Solan.

(v) That the petitioner shall not commit the offence similar to the offence to which he is accused or suspected or the commission of which he is suspected.

(vi) That petitioner shall not misuse his liberty in any manner.

It will be open to the prosecution to apply for imposing any such other or further condition on the petitioner as deemed necessary in the facts and circumstances of the case and in the interest of justice. It will also open to the trial Court to impose any other or further condition on the petitioner as it may deem necessary in the interest of justice.

In case the petitioner violates any condition imposed upon him, his bail shall be liable to be cancelled. In such eventuality, prosecution may approach the competent Court of law for cancellation of bail in accordance with law.

Learned trial Court is directed to comply with the directions issued by the High Court, vide communication No. HHC/VIG/Misc.Instructions/93-IV.7139 dated 18.3.2013.

Petition stands disposed of. Any observation made in this order shall not affect the merits of case in any manner and will strictly confine for the disposal of this bail application filed under Section 439 of Code of Criminal Procedure 1973.

15 Copy of order be obtained by downloading from the High Court website for production and furnishing bail bonds. Necessity of filing certified copy may not be insisted, however, correctness of order may be verified otherwise.

Registry to transmit a copy of this order to the trial Court through e-mail.